After the end
by snowwhitee
Summary: DarylXOC. After Merle goes missing, Daryl begins to become close with a girl in the group. The blossoming romance and their lives are challenged by a man who they encounter while trying to find a place to stay.
1. The cabin

**Authors note: Hey guys! So, unfortunately I'm a bit rusty on my fiction writing, as I've been strapped with so many essays. So, hopefully this is enjoyable! This is, if you didn't already guess it, a bit of a filler between season 1 and 2, before season 2 starts up. Anyway, hopefully there'll be more updates very soon and I hope to actually hear from some of you :)**

Harley had grown up in a non-religious household. Well, her mother was a Christian and sometimes told Harley how much she loved Jesus. But, beliefs were never pushed on anyone in her family. She knew all the stories of hell, purgatory, and heaven. She never really believed in them, though. She had always just thought of them as a way to scare people into being good.

That was before the world ended and hell was everything. She had watched her parents and grandfather get eaten right in front of her and her little sister, Riley. She'd had to shoot her own parents in the fucking head. She'd had to try and explain why to a fifteen year old. Nothing was right anymore, nothing made sense. That University degree that sat on her mantel hadn't prepared her for this.

The "end" had been a few weeks ago now. Or was it days? It felt like years. Decades, even. She couldn't keep track. She didn't have her cell phone that had the date on it anymore, let alone a calendar. It didn't matter now. All they were doing was moving from one death trap to another. First they left the camp after the walkers found it, then the CDC, and now they were on the road again, going God knows where.

Harley sat in the passengers seat of Daryl Dixon's beat up and faded Ford truck. The thing had to be at least ten to fifteen years old. At least. It ran pretty good though, considering how rickety it looked on the outside. She couldn't sat riding with Daryl was her top choice; but, as horrible as it was, it got her a break from Riley. She loved her sister, more than anything. Even with doom upon them, Riley kept up her angst ridden teen act on no matter what. Harley couldn't say she wanted her baby sister getting near any walkers, but the girl was fifteen. She could have done _something _to help out the camp. When it came time to pack up and move on, the idea of being stuck in a vehicle with her sisters whining for however many hours sent chills down her back. She knew, she knew it was awful. Hell, Andrea had held her little sister as she _died._ Harley knew complaining was the last thing she should be doing. She knew she should be trying to spend every minute she could with Riley, but she did need this couple hour break. Bad.

"So. . . Beautiful weather, huh?" Harley said finally after a long silence between her and Daryl. She didn't really care to talk to him. She'd talked to his brother, Merle, enough. Merle had been a disgusting, racist, sexist pig, and was sure Daryl wasn't that much different. Daryl just grunted. It made her blood boil. Every time she tried to talk to the younger Dixon, he just made some stupid noise. If she hadn't heard him talking to others from the camp she would have sworn he couldn't speak at all.

"When someone talks to you, in civilized cultures, people usually use words to answer with." Harley said curtly as she crossed her arms and then turned to the passengers side window to watch the trees and road signs speed by in a blur.

"Well, if you were gon' fuckin' say somethan' that actually meant somethan' I woul' answer." He answered in the same sarcastic tone Harley had used. She rolled her eyes. What an idiot.

"What the fuck do you want me to talk about, Dixon?" Harley retorted. "'So, you see that zombie chomping on that little girls arm today?' I think we see enough unpleasant things without having to talk about them constantly,"

"'S called bein' realistic. Yah can't ignore da' fact this shit is happenin'."

"I'm not!" Harley sighed, face palming. "I wish I could be that oblivious."

"'En you'd be dead." He replied solemnly. Harley took a glance at him from the corner of her eye, he had both hands on the steering wheel, holding it tightly and was looking straight forward at the road like a robot.

"Never mind," Harley said in a quiet voice. She was regretting now getting a ride in his truck. The only reason she had was because she didn't want to deal with many people, and getting into Daryl's truck meant having the closest to alone time she'd have had in what felt like an eternity.

"Yeah. It is nice," Daryl said after a solid minute or two of silence. Harley was so surprised to hear him speak she almost jumped.

"What?"

"Tha weather, stupid," He said and rolled his eyes at her. She wanted to be offended, but she found herself chuckling.

"Yeah, nice that it's finally cooling down," Harley agreed in a nod.

"Yup," Daryl said as he turned a left behind the RV in front of them. It took them to a clearing where, by a big pond, a decent sized log cabin perched. It was one thing, that despite all the death and agony going around like chicken pox in the fourth grade, looked normal, if not downright cheerful.

"Da fuck?" Harley heard Daryl mutter under his breath as he parked behind the RV and got out to meet up with the others, with Harley not far behind.

"How did you know this was here?" Andrea asked as the group all walked towards the front door.

"I didn't. We needed a place to stay, so I took that left hoping we'd either find something or be able to turn around," Rick said seriously as he lifted his pistol up as Shane opened the front door.

"Stay out here," Rick said to the group as he, Shane, Daryl and T-dog went in with their weapons to inspect the house to make sure everyone wasn't walking into some big death trap. The group left outside were silent.

"We're good, get inside," Rick said and ushered everyone in. The inside of the cabin was adorable; and for once, there was no blood, guts or anything pertaining to the undead. The curtains were a cute green and white checker print, there were little embroidered signs hanging up on the walls that read things like "Home sweet home" or "Give us this our daily bread". Everyone almost sighed with relief. This was amazing, real shelter.

"The hot water works!" Glenn joyously cried out after he had turned the knob on the sink. He had figured it would be in vain, but it had worked! No, this place was better than amazing. This place was going to be home. It had to be.


	2. We take it day by day

**Author's note: Thanks so much for the reviews, everyone! They are greatly appreciated! I'm still not sure if I like this story. But then again, I'm one of those people who will always hate everything I write, especially the first couple chapters of a story. It is starting to grow on me a bit. :)**

"Good God," Dale said, his mouth agape when he opened the cupboards. Like everyone else who was searching through the house for any resources, he wasn't really expecting to find anything. When everyone turned to see what he had found their jaws all dropped as well. The cupboard was stocked with booze. Whiskeys, gins, vodkas, sherry's, wines. Some were full, and others were nearly empty. It didn't matter though, the jack pot had been found, in everyone's opinion.

It was Daryl, who broke out of the trance first and made his way next to Dale to look at the booze mine. A smile spread across his face. He tried to talk himself out of thinking that this place might finally be the place where things went right, because he and everyone else had thought the same thing about the CDC.

"Well fuck, I get a shower and some drinking all in one week," Daryl mused with a smirk on his face.

After everyone showered, Andrea, Lori, and Harley all went into the basement to see if there was any kind of food, as there was nothing in the refrigerator and even if there was, it would have long since gone bad. And surely enough, there was some canned food. Loads of it. Fruits, vegetables, spam, nearly everything that could be canned was all neatly lined on a big shelf against the wall.

Right after they all got armfuls of food and brought it upstairs and started making dinner. For the first time in awhile, everyone was pretty jolly. Harley wasn't much of a cook, so instead of cooking with Lori and Andrea she sat beside Glenn at the kitchen's island and chit-chatted with the others.

After they ate and Harley had had a smooth drink of Whiskey, she and Riley retreated to the upstairs to pick a bedroom, while everyone else continued to drink and talk. There were only three bedrooms, so it went without saying that at least someone else would end up bunking in their room too, which ended up to be Andrea, but that was fine. They were all used to being in such closed quarters.

"I miss Mom," Riley said in a sigh as she flopped on the bed. Her cheeks were rosy from the wine she had had. She had only had one glass; that was all Harley would allow. She was only fifteen, after all, and the only reason she got that one glass was because, well. . . What did it matter now that they were in the apocalypse?

Harley's heart sank. She didn't want to think about their Mom. She wanted to keep pretending like she had never existed, as terrible as it was. She didn't want the sorrow on top of all the other stresses. Harley walked across the room to the second bed and sat down.

"I know, I miss her too," Harley said.

"Well, then why don't you ever talk about her? It's like you don't care at all! You don't, do you?" Riley snapped and shot up to her feet.

"Don't talk about her like that," Harley said in gritted teeth. Harley understood that this was hard on Riley especially. She was in that awkward in-between age. She wasn't a child, like Sophia and Carl, and she wasn't an adult like the rest of them. Instead, she was still an awkward teenager trying to figure herself out, both body and mind. Regardless of that fact, Harley couldn't understand how she could say something so cruel.

"It's true though, isn't it? You haven't mentioned her once since we left Grandpa's house. How you can sit down there with those people and eat and drink like nothing happened makes me fucking sick. You seem so happy, I bet you wish I was dead to-"

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Harley said. She didn't yell or raise her voice, she hardly ever did. Instead, her voice was low and dangerous, a tone which Riley had only heard her sister use on a very select number of occasions. That voice made Riley's blood run cold and she instantly regretted what she said. "I miss them every fuckin' day, Riley. I miss them just as much as you do. You need to cut this out. You making this harder on me is the last thing I need."

"Right. It's all about Harley. It always has been, hasn't it?" Riley replied, instantly firing up again. She tucked her dark reddish brown hair behind her ears and narrowed her eyes at her sister.

"What are you even-"

"God, I hate you!" Riley screeched, a piercing sound that only got Harley all the more heated up.

"Riley, I swear-" Harley started after a few second pause. She had been so shocked by how much of a brat her sister was being, she hadn't even been able to form thoughts at first.

"Riley, I thin' someone said they need yah downstairs," Daryl said from the doorframe, making both sister jump. In the moment, they had forgotten other people were in the house, and could hear them. Riley stormed through the room, and purposefully bumped into Harley's shoulder on the way out. Harley bit her lip until she heard Riley make it to the bottom step and then groaned as she sat back down on the bed.

"Firecracker, dat on," Daryl said in a chuckle as he walked across the room and took a seat next to Harley on the yellow quilt.

"That's not the word I'd use right now," Harley mumbled from behind her hands.

"I found 'ese downstairs," Daryl said as he reached into his flannel shirt's front pocket to produce a pack of cigarettes. "I planned on keeping 'em to myself, but it look like you really need one," Harley looked up at him, not sure how to respond. Her and Daryl had hardly even talked the entire time they'd been grouped together at the camp, and if they had it always ended in bickering.

"I don't have anything," Harley said quietly. God, she wanted one of those cigarettes. She could almost feel that slight burn of the smoke at the back of her throat, and the taste in her mouth.

"Whaddya mean? I don't want nothing'. You God damned Yankees don't think anyone can be nice without a price?" Daryl asked. Harley chuckled.

"Fine, in that case, please. I'd love one," She said and Daryl handed her one. The two of them walked downstairs and as discreetly as possible made their way out onto the terrace that faced the lake, away from the kitchen where everyone else in the group was still packed.

"Got a light?" Harley asked once Daryl had closed the sliding door behind them. He nodded, reached into his jeans pocket and pulled out a black light. He reached over close to her, and lit her cigarette for her. "Thanks, what a gentleman," Harley said in a laugh.

"Yer so fuckin' weird. Why do yah have to make everythin' so damn weird?" Daryl asked in an eye roll before he lit his own cigarette. As they smoked, they didn't talk. They both just wanted to enjoy their first cigarettes in a long time in peace and take in the pleasure of the head buzz.

"Want me to get you another drink?" Harley asked as she watched Daryl throw his cigarette butt off the edge of the railing.

"Hell yes," was his reply.

When they walked back in, no one seemed to notice that Daryl had even been gone. After Harley poured herself and Daryl another drink she took her seat back next to Glenn at the island. Once she sat down he gave her a side hug and whispered: "Try not to listen to Riley. She's young and really stressed, you're doing fine," in her ear.

When one in the morning rolled around, everyone, who were by then quite drunk, started staggering up the stairs to go to bed, Harley got up to do the same. She was feeling pretty happy at that point, and her cheeks were burning hot. Just as she was about to take a step forward to join the rest of the group she felt a hand grab her by the wrist.

"One more smoke before bed?"

"You should really save those, you know." Harley said, even though she did really want one.

"Gotta live a little, I guess," Daryl replied in a shrug as he got to his feet. They waited a minute or two before they were sure everyone was in their respective rooms, before they made a break for the terrace. Once again, Daryl lit Harley's cigarette for her and then they both leaned against the cabin, so close that their shoulders were touching.

"Thanks for the smoke," Harley said, followed by a hiccup.

"Fuckin' city girls can't hold their liquor," Daryl snorted as he took a long drag off of his cigarette.

"Your eyes are as red as a fire truck. I don't think you should be talking," Harley shot back.

"Women," Daryl grumbled under his breath.

Now, what happened next neither of them is sure how it began. But somehow, before either of them realized it, Daryl had Harley pinned to the cabin's wall, their lips entwined. Harley's cigarette was still going, and ashes covered Daryl's back, but he didn't notice. And even if he had, he wouldn't have cared. He ran a hand through her hair, and she dropped her cigarette and pulled him closer.

The moment was up though, and the realization dawned on them of what was happening and they pulled away from one another, both blushing.

"Fuckin' Yankee," Daryl said as he slid open the door to head inside and go to bed.

"Hick," Harley retorted. They didn't walk together through the den or up he stairs. Daryl kept a good head start and Harley stayed a good ten feet behind him, as if it would make anything less awkward.

The next morning when Harley woke up both Andrea and Riley were out of the room. She sighed, her head dully pounding. Enough to be annoying, but not enough to bitch about, thankfully. She got out of the bed, which she hadn't even hadn't bothered to get under the covers of the night before, and made her way down the stairs.

"Good morning, princess," Glenn said cheerily once Harley came into the kitchen.

"Where were you last night?" Riley asked coldly from the table.

"Here, why don't you come get some breakfast?" Lori asked Harley, hoping to break up a potential fight. Harley gave her a warm smile of thanks and walked over to the counter.

"Well, where were you?" Riley repeated. Harley opened her mouth to speak when she heard that oh-so familiar clicking sound, and something cold and hard press against the back of your head.

"What the fuck are you people doing in my house?" A man asked from behind her. _Of course, _Harley thought_, of course it would be me who would be standing next to the door when the owner of the house, who everyone thought was dead, decided to come back. And of course, he wouldn't just ask why we were here. He'd obviously have to put a gun to my head. Seems right._


	3. We're flesh & bone when we're all alone

**Author's note: Hi! Sorry this chapter took so freakin' long to get out. I was really busy and had the worst writers block. So, I ended up just cranking this one out, so I hope it's still good. Thanks so much for the reviews! I love reading them, so keep 'em coming (please)! **

**Also, in case you were curious, the title is lyrics from the Dead Man's bones song, "Werewolf heart", which I've been listening to almost on repeat. Anyway, enjoy, lovelies! xoxo**

The sun shined brightly through the pale curtains, and Harley almost thought it funny that the day she could potential have her brains blow out would be on such a beautiful day. Almost funny, mind you. She felt herself trembling as the man behind her pressed his gun harder to the back of her head.

"I said, what the fuck are ya'll doin' in my house!" The man yelled.

"We thought it was abandoned," Rick said, breaking the shocked silence of the group. He got up out of his chair at the dining table, but didn't dare take a step forward.

"Well, it ain't," The man growled, but finally took his gun away from Harley's head and stashed it in it's holster. Harley reached back and touched the back of her head; still solid. She looked back at the man; he wasn't too tall, maybe about 5'10 with rugged features and skin that looked leathery from too much sun. "Git out,"

"Please, can't we stay here for a maybe a day or two? We really need to figure out a plan," Dale chimed in. Dale and Rick seemed to be the only two who were able to speak, everyone else hung back in the corners of the room, just watching like ghosts.

Harley, who was still facing the man looked behind him, and saw in the doorway two boys. One couldn't have been more than ten, while the other looked like he would be about high school age. Both of them were also holding hunting rifles, and were dressed in camouflage.

"And that's my problem why?" The older man snarled at Dale who didn't respond, but only looked down at the dining room table.

"It's not," Shane replied in a sigh. He wished he could have some reason to convince the man to let them stay here, but he had none. They broke into his home, used his shower, slept in his beds, ate his food, he didn't owe them a damn thing. Then there was a long silence as the man thought through his options.

"Alright, I'll let ya'll stay a couple days," The man finally said. He then turned around toward the open door and nodded and his two sons walked in. "These are my boys, Rex," He gestured to the older one. "And Tommy. And I'm Bill." From there, everyone else introduced themselves and thanked Bill while Lori and Carol quickly made Bill and his sons breakfast.

"Sorry I had that gun to yer head," Bill said in a laugh. "Some of the houses down the road had people come in and rob 'em, so I figured. . . ."

"Oh, it's okay. Guns to the head happen," Harley said in a shrug. Glenn stifled a laugh, he could tell from the look on Harley's face her heart was still pounding.

"You still want breakfast?" Lori asked Harley, giving her an apologetic look.

"Nah, I somehow lost my appetite," Harley replied and gave Lori a smile.

"So, why were you guys out there if you have a good set up like this that doesn't seem to have any walkers around?" Shane asked Bill. All of the men, Bill, Dale, Shane, Rick, Glenn and Daryl all sat around the dining room table. Bill's sons stood behind his chair, moving so little they almost blended in with the wall.

"Huntin'," Bill replied as he shoveled another forkful of egg into his mouth. "Canned food can only last so long, you know? We were out there looking for deer or bird, or something."

"Did you get anything?" Daryl asked, he seemed to perk up a bit at the mention of 'hunting'.

"Nah, there were some walkers in the woods that probably scared off anything that was there. We're gonna try and go out later, aren't we boys?" His two sons nodded. Harley, who was leaning against the counter, watching all the men gab, couldn't help but wonder how much of a nightmare Bill must have been as a father to have them seem so. . . Lifeless.

"Want some company?" Daryl asked. "I could really go for a hunt,"

"Sure, the more the merrier as long as ya'll are quiet," Bill replied. "It'd be nice to have someone have my back," He added with an icy tone. The elder son shuddered when Bill said that, as if he had a chill.

"Can I go too?" Riley asked from the island. She turned away from her food just to look at Bill and give him her most pathetic smile. Harley was about to shoot her down and say 'no', but Bill beat her to the punch.

"No, sorry girly. I've learned over the years that women usually tend to muck up a good hunt," He said in a laugh. Harley met eyes with Carol, who was sitting at the island, along with Sophia, next to Riley. Harley could tell Carol was thinking the same thing she was; that however long the group spent with this guy, was going to be obnoxious. The worst part was, was that no one would say anything back to them. If they did, they all knew he could easily throw them out and leave them to be a meal.

"I'm gonna go take a nap, alright? We'll go for the hunt after," Bill said as he rose to his feet with a yawn. He was a tall man, so tall that when he stood up straight his head almost hit the light that hung down from the ceiling over the table.

"Er, Bill," Rick said sheepishly. "We all spent the night in rooms upstairs, because we thought this place was abandoned. There's probably still some stuff up in your room, I'll go grab it," With that, he, Bill and the sons headed up the stairs. Once their backs were turn, Harley saw Daryl put the cigarettes he "found" back on the table, looking a bit disappointed.

It was a couple hours later when Bill and his sons reemerged from their rooms. Bill and Rex, the older son, had their rifles slung over their shoulders and were still wearing camo from head to toe. They walked down the old stairs with heavy booted feet, and each stair they stepped on made a loud creak or groan.

"Alright, ya'll ready to go?" Bill asked in a gruff voice when he got to the den, where the group was all sitting around. Everyone looked at one another and then Rick got to his feet and nodded. Shane and Daryl also got to their feet and they all headed toward the door, all of them grabbing their respective weapons, and Rick snatching up his sheriff's hat as well.

"Daddy, do I have to go? I'm tired," The little boy, Tommy said. He looked over to Carl, Rick's son and smiled. It had been ages since Tommy had seen a kid around his own age, and he really wanted to stay and show him his G.I. Joe collection. Bill sighed dramatically, as if Tommy had asked him the most annoying question possible.

"Yes Tommy, you do," Bill said, his tone was low but some kind of anger bubbled beneath. It was a dangerous tone, that made all of the adults in the group feel a little unsettled. "You have to go out there with us, bring home dinner, like a man. Alright? Now let's go," And then the group of men headed out the door and into the woods, ignoring the fact that the sun was already starting to set.

"That Bill guy is something else," Andrea said in an eye roll and leaned back into the couch.

"Yeah, we can't do anything though," Lori replied in a sigh. She cradled her chin in one hand and had the other arm around Carl, who was staring off into space. "I mean, this is the first solid place we've had to stay in awhile. So far no bombs, no walkers, and lots of food. We can't really fight him,"

An hour or so had passed, and the sun was completely settled behind the hills in the distance and moon had risen. The woods were sparse; trees and rocks were scattered about, but for the most part they were just in a big clearing. With the pale moonlight shining down on them, the place looked like something straight out of some horror flick. No one would have been surprised if a Wendigo came running out at them from nowhere. Or worse, a group of walkers. . .

"Here, let's take a break for a bit," Bill said as he sat down on decently big, flat rock. He reached into his camouflage vest and pulled out a flask and took a swig from it. His sons were still silent, even though their father had called a break. They walked over by him and took a seat on the forest floor beside the rock Bill was perched upon.

"Have you been out here the entire outbreak?" Rick asked. He didn't bother to sit down like Bill and his boys, he continued to stand, like one of the still trees around him, almost rooted to the spot.

"Yeah. The three of us have always lived here. Only seen a few walkers since it all began, they seem to stay away from here. This place has always been pretty deserted besides us, though. Every once in awhile someone would come down and go to the lake to go fishing, but that was about it. Seems to stay that way now."

"Well, it's nice to be able to rest easy at night. Thanks for letting us stay here," Shane said. He was also standing, but stayed his distance from Rick by a few feet. And then for awhile the four of them just had small talk; with large, awkward gaps of quiet between topics.

"Sorry I spooked the hell out of that Harley girl this morning," Bill finally said in a chuckle as he ran a hand down his gun absentmindedly. Shane and Rick laughed, just because they felt they had to. Daryl stayed quiet, watching Bill. He couldn't tell anyone why, but he felt something was wrong.

"Ah, she'll be okay. She's tough, and a little startle is probably healthy for her," Rick said in a smile. Bill reached into his vest and took another down of his flask, then shook it downward, and surely enough it was empty. Bill's cheeks were bright red and eyes were slightly bloodshot.

"Purty little thing, she is," Bill mumbled as he put his flask back inside his vest.

"Yeah, she is," Shane agreed, just so there wouldn't be an awkward silence. It's not that he was lying, everyone agreed Harley was very attractive. But, it just wasn't something anyone focused on. They were all too busy to stay alive, or were grieving over loved ones to really pay attention to how good-looking one another was.

"I'd fuck her 'til she was raw," Bill said in a laugh as he got up to his feet, his son following his lead. Rick and Shane had no friendly answer for this, instead they just looked at him, hoping for the moment to go away. Daryl bit his lip, something about Bill talking about Harley like that made his blood boil. "Think I got a chance?" Bill asked after a long few seconds of quiet. Rick and Shane almost sighed in relief that he had asked something that wasn't as volatile, something they could actually respond to. This was hard to answer, too though. Say no, piss off the man who's giving them food and shelter. Say yes, and throw Harley, a girl who had become like family to them, under the bus.

"I don't know, man." Shane said in a shrug. He'd leave it to Harley to put a stop to this one herself.

"Well, let's get going," Bill said and started walking deeper into the woods. Clearly Shane's answer wasn't what he wanted to hear, but he didn't complain or start a fight.

Hours passed at the cabin, and everyone inside stayed up as long as they could before they decided sitting around worrying wasn't worth it, and they might as well try to get some sleep. Since the family was back and had taken their bedrooms again, everyone was sleeping down in the den in their sleeping bags, which they had grabbed from the RV earlier that day. All except the Grimes' that is. One of the bedrooms was a guest room, and no one had complained when the Grimes' had taken it. They were the biggest family after all, and though everyone wanted it, they all respected that it made the most sense for them to have it.

About an hour and a half had passed since everyone had settled down to try and sleep, but Harley was still wide awake. Her sleeping bag was beside one of the floor length windows and she found herself just looking up at the moon that hung in the sky, looking both beautiful and menacing.

She could hear everyone's sleeping breaths; long and deep. Glenn was snoring loudly across the den, so loudly that when the men came in she didn't even hear them at first. She didn't realize they were back until she heard Rick and Bill say goodnight to Shane and Daryl before ascending the stairs, with Rex and Tommy in tow, to go to their respective rooms.

All of a sudden, something hit her arm and she nearly jumped a foot. She looked over and Daryl was there, laying out his sleeping bag next to hers. It had shown that he had grown up hunting; she hadn't so much as heard a footstep or breath from him. Shane wasn't having as good luck as Daryl, he almost kicked every person he walked over in the head, and actually did connect his socked foot to Glenn's leg.

"What're you doing?" Harley asked.

"Laying down my sleeping bag, what's it look like?" Daryl asked as he unzipped the side a bit so he could have some room to sprawl out while he slept.

"Oh, sorry," Harley said and rolled over so her back was to him. Daryl looked at her silhouette for a minute. Why was the idea of Bill wanting her so bad bothering him? He was in his forties or fifties and she was only twenty four, not to mention he was gross. She'd never want him. But still, something about Bill having his eye on her made Daryl feel like she was in some kind of danger. A danger that an arrow to the head wouldn't fix. He slid into his sleeping bag, and despite knowing it was probably out of bounds to do he reached out and wrapped an arm around her. She tensed for a moment, and right when he was about to pull his arm back to his side, admitting defeat, Harley's hand grasped onto his.


	4. Don't worry

Daryl and Harley laid together for quite awhile, far enough apart that their bodies didn t actually touch but close enough that Daryl comfortably kept an arm draped over her. It was a bizarre feeling for both of them, and that was saying a lot considering everything they d seen in the past few weeks.

Harley wanted to feel repulsed. He was a stupid redneck; he was every reason she d gone to school, done well, and gotten a good job at the Boston Times. But, there was something about him. Something she couldn t place a finger on that made this feel alright. Maybe it was the fact that she knew either of them could die within the next ten minutes, but she didn t think so. She hadn t minded being alone all this time. Yeah, the guy had a temper that could get set off like a hair trigger, but he was nice. He had beaten her expectations. She d never really bothered to talk with him too in-depth because of his brother, now she understood that even though they were close they were very, very different. She finally sighed, letting go of her tense thoughts and hitched back a little, closer to Daryl.

Once she was closer, Daryl tightened his grip around her and rested his face against her shoulder, making her long dark hair brush against his cheeks. It was weird, even to Daryl Dixon. He d never been close to Harley before this past week or so. He knew a lot about her; he knew she was a twenty four year old college graduate from New England, all that stuff that was useless now. But, he d never really had one on one time with her; and if he had it had always been bickering, which he had always found a bit hot, but beyond the point. He strained his ears a bit, it sounded like everyone, including Shane were asleep now.

"You awake?" Daryl whispered in Harley s ear. She stirred a bit and glanced over her shoulder at him.

"Yeah, I am," She whispered back. Both of their voices were so low that they could barely even hear one another.

"Good,"

"Why?"

"I dunno," Daryl replied and gave a little shrug. "Just go to sleep,"

"Well, that s hard to go with you whispering in my god damn ear,"

"Well, I won t whisper in your ear no more if you shut up," Daryl said and squeezed her hand gently, and she wanted to fight him, but she was so tired. So, for once she did listen to him, and slept amazingly.

The next morning everyone met in the kitchen, as usual. Breakfast was made and everyone enjoyed themselves the best they had since before they found out the CDC was a trap. Daryl was sitting at the round dining room table along with Bill, his sons, the Grimes and Dale, the rest of the group were across the room at the island. As Daryl ate, he kept seeing Bill in his peripheral vision, staring at him. Every time he would look up and try and catch him in the act he would be breaking eye contact.

"So, Daryl would you be down fer another huntin trip after we eat?" Bill asked finally. Daryl looked up, swallowed his food and then smirked. He knew Bill wasn t being friendly; everyone who had heard Bill speak knew that something else was going on behind the surface. Daryl was curious, and also had the bad habit of never being able to avoid a conflict.

"I d love to," Daryl replied in the same tone Bill had used as he dropped his fork onto his plate.

"Alright, well if you re done, I am too," Bill said.

"I am, let s go," Daryl said. Both men got up, leaving their dirty plates on the table, grabbed their weapons and left the cabin without another word. After they left everyone was looking at each other in confusion.

"Oh God," Glenn said in a sigh. "Two angry rednecks alone in the woods, this ought to be interesting,"

"So, I couldn t help but notice something s wrong with you. What is it?" Daryl asked impatiently once he and Bill had trudged through the forest a couple of yards in complete silence.

"You know, Dixon, when I went hunting with you yesterday I thought you were a good guy. You seemed to be the only person in that fuckin place who seemed to understand anything. But, what you did was one hell of a thing to do,"

"What tha fuck are you talkin about?" Daryl asked, his grip on his bow tightening. He didn t even know what he had done wrong yet, and he was already furious.

"I told you what I wanted with Harley, member?" He asked. Daryl didn t say or do anything, just glared. "I saw the two o you last night. Canoodling on the floor. Yer a fuckin asshole and I don t like it. Yeah, it s only one bitch, 't hell with it right? Once again, Daryl didn t speak, only watched Bill like a hawk. "Wrong. Getting a good fuck is hard these days. I put a lot of stock in that girl. An' I could tell by the way she was lookin at you all through this morning an last night. She won t give me a second look with your ugly ass around,"

"You think she would either way?" Daryl asked and then laughed, though he didn t smile. It was the kind of laugh that happens from too much anger or nerves. That s a fuckin joke right there,

"Look, Dixon. I like you, I really do, I already said that. But, to be honest I d like some pussy more right now. So, let s make a deal? You seem like the kind of guy who likes to deal, right?" No response, again. "Drop her, and y all can stay at my cabin as long as you like,"

"Fuck you, man," Daryl said, his voice rising. "She ain't money,"

"You actually like the bitch, don t you?" Bill asked and started to erupt in hysterical laughter. He even bent down and slapped his thigh a couple of times. When he stood back up though, his face was dead serious. It was almost like his laughing fit had been some weird kind of dream. "She ain t worth it, I'll tell you that. She seems purty, and nice now, don't she? Well, soon she'll fuck ya over and you won't have nothing! Especially now. Think about it, in my cabin y'all are safe, and have food. What more could you ask for?"

"Well, I know one thing I could ask for that you re not going to get," Daryl said, his voice quivering in anger. "A fuck," Bill s lip trembled a bit from rage as he stood before Daryl, a solid three inches taller than him, staring down his nose at him. Daryl let out a grunt of disbelief; he wanted to haul off and punch Bill right in the jaw, but he didn't. It was while Daryl was looking down that Bill reached down with speed, grabbed a large rock off the ground and hit Daryl upside the head with it.

"You keep thinking that, boy," Bill said in a laugh as he walked away from Daryl s unconscious figure, back towards the cabin where everyone was completely oblivious.

"What do you think was up with Daryl and Bill this morning?" Lori asked Harley. The two were sitting together on the couch, just looking out the big window at the lake below them. Harley shrugged.

"Your guess is as good as mine," She replied. "Hope they're okay though," She said quietly, never once taking her eyes off of the blue-green lake. Not even five minutes after she said that, the front door opened and Bill walked through the door, his rifle in hand and a look of dismay on his face.

"Where s Daryl?" Dale asked as he looked behind Bill, half expecting to see Daryl walking down from the woods behind him.

"Oh my God," Bill said, his voice shaking as he made his way through the kitchen and into the living room where he sat in the chair beside where Harley was perched. "It was terrible. We went out into the woods to hunt, and a group of walkers came outta nowhere, an got him. . . I managed to run, but Daryl didn t. . . He said and buried his face into his hands and groaned."

"Oh my God," Lori said from beside Harley, her jaw dropping. She then looked over to her husband who stood in the corner of the room, his eyes wide.

"Glad you're okay," Shane said and patted Bill on the shoulder. Daryl wasn't a group favorite; almost every single person in the group had some kind of problem with him, but he had brought a lot to the group. His sharp instincts had saved their asses multiple times, his skills with weapons had made everyone more safe and his love of hunting had gotten them dinner when they other wise would have starved. Yeah, Daryl had definitely gotten on everyone s nerves, but everyone's hearts sank a bit as they thought about him becoming a victim.

Every ate dinner as usual later that night, though no one talked as much. It had been that way all day after Bill had told them the news, no one really seemed as cheerful as before. Harley ate her food, slowly, but she did eat because she knew how stupid it would be not to when food was so scarce. She didn t want to though. She had only just started to get close to Daryl, and though at the time it had seemed strange and random, she realized then that she had really enjoyed it. It had been nice to fall asleep with his arm around her, because for the first time since the whole world ended, she didn t feel totally alone.

"Where are you going?" Rick asked when Harley headed out towards the living room. No one really knew what had been going on for sure between her and Daryl, but they all knew something had been up from the past couple of days.

"Just going to sit on the porch for a little bit," She said and offered them a smile, though it was fake it was still something.

She sat down on the porch with her back against the lumber walls. It was finally starting to get a bit chillier at night instead of stay swelteringly hot. The cool wind felt nice against her face and she closed her eyes. She still hadn t wrapped her head around it yet, Daryl being gone. He had been there, laying right beside her not even twenty four hours ago.

"Mind if I join you?" Bill asked.

"It's your porch, go ahead," Harley replied and faked another smile. He walked onto the porch, sliding the glass door shut behind him and leaned against the railing across from Harley.

"I'm sorry about Daryl," He said solemnly. "I did everything I could to save him, but it was no use,"

"It's okay. You had to save yourself," Harley said in a hollow voice.

"Are you alright?" Bill asked and knelt down in front of Harley. He took her chin in his hand and tilted her face up so she couldn t help but look into his dark brown, nearly black eyes.

"Fine," She said and turned her face away from him.

"You and Daryl seemed pretty close. I'm sorry for your loss,"

"It's fine,"

"If you need some. . .Comforting, let me know," Bill said in a wink and caressed the side of Harley's face, making her shudder in shock and disgust.

"I think I'm good on comfort levels," Harley said and got back up to her feet, ready to go back inside and be with her friends and family. Before she could even make it a step, Bill reached out and grabbed her by the wrist.

"I'm happy for ya, I really am," He said in a smile. He then pulled her to him making her yelp out in pain from the odd angle her arm had been turned to. But, I also really think you ought to come up to my room tonight, He whispered in her ear, his breathe thick with chewing tobacco. "Don't bother trying to tattle on me, sweetheart. No one will listen, this set up is too sweet for just one person to fuck it up. Either you come up tonight, or y'all are getting kicked out in the morning," With that being said, he smacked her ass, gave her a quick kiss on the lips and then walked back into the den, leaving Harley alone on the porch once more. She felt nauseous. The last thing she wanted was to crawl into bed with that. . . Thing. But, what choice did she have? He had been right. She walked over to the railing and rested her elbows on it and then cradled her face in her hands. There was no way out of this one, not this time. The thought of Bill s nude body, or Bill touching her made her stomach turn.

She sat outside on the porch for almost an hour, dreading her fate when she went back inside. She could hear everyone inside settling down even though it was only eight o'clock at the latest. No one really had the energy to stay up any longer, there was no point. Every was feeling a little down at the loss of another group member. Harley finally sighed as she slowly turned around from the railing to turn to the sliding door. She quietly made her way from the porch, through the living room and over to the staircase. At the top of the stairs she saw Bill's room, with a light flickering behind it. She took a deep breath and held it for a minute before she ascended the stairs. Her knees wobbly and her heart pounding the entire time, and not in the good way.


	5. The close call

**Hey guys, so I think you all will like this chapter. I hope, anyway. If you're not busy, you should leave me a review! Because, let's be real, that's the only reason I post these online in the first place instead of keeping them to myself. I'd love to hear from you! Enjoy! xoxo**

Harley had taken as long as she could to walk up those ten stairs, but eventually she found herself right outside Bill's door. She wanted to turn around and tell him to fuck himself, but she couldn't. Too many people were depending on this cabin to live, and Riley was one of them. Harley always put Riley ahead of herself, especially now. She took one more deep breath then exhaled, hoping to just get rid of all emotions and become a robot, just to get through this. Her hand shook as she reached it up and knocked lightly on the door.

"Come in," Bill grunted from the other side of the door. Harley turned the knob and let herself in. There was no electricity, but Bill had a kerosene lamp beside his bed that flickered and moved, leaving odd shadows on the walls. Bill himself was laying on the bed in just his boxers. His beer belly protruded out so thickly that he almost looked pregnant. His chest, stomach and shoulders were covered in thick, black and gray hairs. Harley swallowed hard. Just don t think about, don t do it.

"I knew you'd come," Bill said in a big smile as he got up from the bed. Harley closed the door and leaned against the wall. She couldn t walk towards him, her knees felt like jelly and the wall was the only sense of support she could find. Bill ignored the fear and discomfort in her eyes when he made his way over to her. He looked down at her and smiled, an eerie, menacing kind of grin that sent shivers up Harley's spine and made every single fiber in her body scream 'RUN'. "You re such a pretty girl," Bill mused as he placed his big, meaty hands on her hips and hiked her shirt up to her ribs. With his free hands he started to rub her side gently. "I knew you'd see things my way,"

"I didn t have a choice," Harley replied coldly. Bill laughed and let go of her shirt.

"You're right there," He said. "You really didn't, unless you wanted yerself and everyone you love to die," He added in a shrug as he put his other hand on her hip and picked her up and wrapped her legs around his waist. "Are you ready for one hell of a night, babe?" He winked. Harley's stomach started to turn again, and she didn't respond. She wanted to spit in his face, kick him in the groin and leave, that's what she normally would have done, but she couldn't now. She was helpless. "It's okay, you don t have to speak. I don t really like chatty women anyhow," He smiled and buried his face in her neck, leaving her little kisses above her collar bone, which had always been her favorite thing. Kiss or a bite her neck, she always said, and she'd be yours. Well, now was the exception. Never before had someone touched her neck and she hadn't been turned on, but now she just felt ill.

"It'll be okay," Bill cooed onto her skin as his hand moved from her hip and under her jeans, making their way towards her most private place. Harley bit her lip, the pain made her forget about what she was going to have to endure. "Hell, you might even like it," He said, his hand slowly grazing down her hip bone, his calloused hands moving down her smooth skin silkily, almost to that sweet spot. . .

"Oh my god, are you alright?" Someone Harley guessed to be Andrea cried from downstairs, followed by a series of footsteps running towards the front door. Bill looked towards the front door and sighed exasperatedly.

"Wait here, okay?" He said and let go of Harley. He grabbed his jeans and a T-shirt, threw them on and headed out the door. Bill raced down the stairs and to the kitchen where everyone was gathered. In the doorway, Daryl stood. Blood was dried to his temple, some of it had run down to his cheekbone in long. Thin dribbles. The look on his face was murderous, and Bill s heart started to race. He thought for sure at least one walker would come along and find him. . .

"You sick fuck!" Daryl roared at the top of his lungs when Bill emerged into the kitchen. Daryl tried to make his way through the group to jump on the flustered and scared Bill, who kept the face of an angel as Daryl made his way through the crowd, before Shane grabbed him to stop him.

"What are you talking about?" Shane asked Daryl, who was red in the face.

"This son of a bitch. . . This fucker. . ." Daryl sputtered. "He told me he saw Harley 'n I 'canoodling' last night or somethin' weird like that and had a fucking freak out on me. Said if we wanted to stay here I had to give the 'bitch' up," He said using air quotes. "Well, I obviously said, she ain't money or somethin' I can just give away like that. I can't just say, 'yes she'll fuck you'. And he grabbed a fuckin rock when I was lookin away and hit me in the head." All eyes turned to Bill who raised his hands defensively.

"I never did that," He said, clearly desperate to find a loophole so that everyone in the in the cabin wouldn't turn on him and leave. He really didn't want to be alone again, and he liked being the ruler of something. Everyone in the group was silent, waiting to see what would happen next. Harley, who had been listening upstairs, then bolted down to the kitchen, after she finally got up the courage.

"Bullshit!" Harley said, all eyes the turning to her. "You told me if I didn t come to your room tonight to fuck you, you d kick us all out,"

"You did what?" Daryl yelled, then trying to lung at Bill again, but Shane s grip was too tight on him and he never made it so much as another foot towards Bill.

"You know you wanted it!" Bill shouted at Harley, who couldn't help but laugh at the ridiculousness of that claim. Her laughter made Bill turn beet red with fury.

"Yeah, that beer gut of yours is really attractive," Harley said sarcastically. In his blind rage, he pulled his arm back to hit her, then remembered right before he let go all the people that were around and dropped it back to his side. There was a long silence then, no one knew what to say.

"Consider us gone," Rick said finally. "If you're going to treat us like this, it s not worth it. We ll find somewhere else, I'm sure. Having you anywhere near my wife and little boy makes me sick," He said calmly, as if he were talking about the weather. Everyone, go get your stuff. We re out of here.

Bill waited by the front door, and watched bitterly as everyone walked by, never once saying a word, just sneering. Harley had her clothes draped over her arm as she walked out, and kept her head down. She didn't want to so much as see Bill again, and the thought of how dangerously close she had been to having to have sex with him made her sick all over again. She almost made it through the door when he grabbed her arm and pulled her close to him. Daryl was right behind her and got her away from him quickly, but Bill still had time to speak to her before he did.

"Don't worry sweetheart, I'll get a piece of that ass sometime. We'll meet up again, you'll see," His low, gravelly voice almost to a whisper, a tone that chilled Harley to the core. Daryl had heard it too, and without anyone to hold him back he punched Bill in the face, who dropped to the floor instantly. He held his nose and groaned in pain.

"Don't worry about this piece of shit," Daryl huffed, as he placed a reassuring hand on her back after kicking Bill square in the ribs, for good measure.

"Harley," Riley, who was right outside of the front door, said. She had already loaded her things into the RV, but wanted to see her sister before they headed out again. "I'm sorry I yelled at you. Are you okay?" She asked and pulled Harley into a hug, who was shocked at her sister s for once kind human display of affection, rather than shrieking and accusation, but was pleased by it.

"I'm okay," Harley said and wrapped her arm around her sister.

"Why would you go up to his room?" Riley asked as she pulled away from Harley, who kept a hand on her shoulder. Behind Harley, Daryl perked up, eager to hear the answer. He had wondered the same thing, why she would willingly go to his room.

"He was going to kick us out. And this was the safest place, and I wanted you to stay safe," Harley explained, her voice quiet and soft.

"You're stupid," Riley said in a faked laugh. "I'll see you when we get to wherever we re going, I love you," She added awkwardly, it had been such a long time since she'd said that phrase it felt wrong coming from her mouth. She then gave Harley one more quick hug before walking over to Dale, who helped her into the RV. Harley was stunned. Ever since what had happened at their Grandparents house, Riley had seemed to hate her. Maybe things were finally going to turn around a little bit.

"Let's get going, I'm sick of this place," Daryl said as he opened his truck door and threw his things down on the floor.

"Yeah, get me out of here," Harley agreed as she walked towards him and slid into the passengers seat. The truck started with some sputtering but finally shook to life, and he started to drive down the dirt road towards the high way behind the RV.

"I gotta ask," Daryl said after they had been on the road for at least fifteen minutes. Both he and Harley had been looking out the window, completely quiet, both trying to absorb what had happened within the last twenty four hours. "Did you?"

"Did I what?"

"Did you. . . You know. . . Fuck 'im," He asked, the last two words coming out with difficulty for him.

"No," Harley said in a smile and hitched from the passengers side to the middle of the seat, so she was closer to Daryl. "I didn't. You showed up just in time," She said and reached out and grabbed his hand that wasn t on the steering wheel.

"I guess I m just good," Daryl shrugged.

"Can you pull over for a second?" Harley asked.

"If we do we can't follow the RV,"

"We have the radio, and they're going slow. I just have to do something,"

"Look, if yah had to piss, you shoulda-"

"Not that!" Harley exclaimed and laughed. "Something else,"

"Alright, fine," Daryl agreed in a defeated sigh as he pulled off to the side of the deserted high way. The only thing in sight before them was the RV, other than that it was just a large strip of gray road, not so much as one other vehicle was in sight. It was another reminder of how alone they all were now. He put the car in park and looked over at Harley curiously.

"You just got me out of the worst situation I think I may have ever been in," She said, his hand still laced with hers.

"Aw, don t get all sappy now-" Daryl begged. Harley unlaced her fingers from his and placed her hand on his muscled shoulder. She looked into his blue eyes for a second, and then moved in, placed a simple and sweet kiss on his lips. He was surprised, he hadn't thought she was going to do that, but he wasted no time in kissing back. After the sweet, thanking kiss was getting boring, he placed his hands on her hips and pulled her on top of him. After a few seconds of continuing to innocently kiss, Daryl gently ran his tongue over her bottom lip, and she opened her mouth eagerly, letting his tongue go into her mouth and taste her and feel everything. Daryl squeezed her hips a little bit and she grinded her hips against him, gently but sensually, making a small moan escape from Daryl. Harley pulled back and gave him a devilish grin.

"What?" Daryl demanding, trying to sound serious, but he couldn't seem to keep a smile from his face.

"Nothing," Harley said in a small shrug before leaning back down to meet his lips. Daryl ran his fingers through her hair, and then cradled the back of her head in his hand as he hungrily pulled her closer to him and deepened the kiss. He moved his hands from her hips to her back, and ran his hands underneath her shirt and then under her the clasp of her bra, keeping his hand laid flat on her hot skin.

Harley pulled back just a centimeter and bit his lip as she pulled back, making another groan of pleasure come from Daryl. She could feel him, hard on her thigh and just because she knew she could, she moved her leg just enough to get another grunt of approval. Harley kissed his cheek and made a little trail from there to the base of his neck where she started to suck a bit, making Daryl hold onto her tighter, just to feel her even more and to make sure she didn't end up leaving him high and dry. This wasn't what she had planned on, by any means. But her new appreciation for him, and what they had couldn't be ignored any longer. Neither of them had the time to affording beating around the bush. Who knew when another group of walkers would show up? And who could say if both of them would make it out alive? No one, that's who, and both Harley and Daryl knew it, even though they didn't want to. That on top of what had almost happened with Bill made her all the more ready for anything Daryl could have wanted. Harley had obviously noticed how good looking Daryl was before, but just as it was with every aspect of his character, she had ignored it because she was "unsure" about him. It's funny how sometimes thinking someone is gone can make you realize things.

"Where are you two?" Rick's voice came in over the radio just as Harley had reached down and was about to unbutton Daryl's jeans. They pulled apart, both panting. Harley looked down at Daryl sadly and gave him a half smile before getting out of the straddling position to sit back in the passengers seat, feeling extremely sexually frustrated.

"Uh, I had a tire problem, but it s okay. We ll be there in a bit," Daryl replied into the microphone.

"Alright, keep going straight. We haven't made any turns yet, just wanted to make sure you were okay. We haven't so much as seen a hint for a place to stay, so we may be on the road awhile. How are you doing on gas?" Rick asked.

"Full. I'm good," Daryl said, ending the conversation. Daryl sighed as he put the microphone back in it's space beside the radio. Daryl didn't say anything else to Harley, but put an arm around her as he continued to drive through the desolate city.


	6. The life I left behind

**Author's note: Hey guys! Sorry this took so long to get out. I had/have so much stuff to do, and a lack of motivation to do it all. But, I finally got this out and I hope you like it. Not too much Daryl/Harley action, I kind of wanted to explore Harley and Riley's past a little more, and I actually really liked writing this chapter. So, I hope you dig it too! But, if not, never fear! Next chapter will be loaded with Daryl and Harley stuff. :)**

The group drove all night, until finally they had to take a break in an old rest stop. The truck had run out of gas, and as much as it broke Daryl's heart to do, he had to leave it behind and instead take out his motorcycle from the truck's bed. Harley stood, leaning against the RV with her arms crossed over her chest. Even though she didn't like being out in the open, where a potential horde could sneak up on her, she was happy to be out of Daryl's musty old truck and get a little fresh air.

"We should get back on the road," Rick said after a few minutes.

"You coming with me?" Daryl asked Harley, as he sat a few feet in front of her on his hog.

"I'd fall off the damn thing," Harley replied in a little smile. Plus, she didn't like the idea of being so exposed. It freaked her out.

"Aw, c'mon,"

"No way," Harley said in a laugh as she stood up from the RV and walked over to him as everyone else was walking back into the van. "Be careful, okay?" She asked and gave him a quick peck on the lips when she was sure that no one was looking and then made her way into the Winnebago along with the rest of the group.

"Wow, you're actually coming with us instead of Daryl," Riley said in a snide tone, that made Harley's heart start to sink. Harley had made herself believe when they had left the cabin, and Riley had hugged her and told her she loved her, that everything was going to better. Harley admitted to herself that she should have known better when raging hormones were surviving a zombie apocalypse. Glenn, who sat on the bench beside Riley, elbowed her in the ribs gently. Riley then faked a broad smile, in an attempt to cover her faux pas as a joke.

"Yup, here for the long haul," Harley agreed as she sat down on the bench opposite Glenn, Carol, Sophia and Riley.

The whole drive Harley didn't speak, she just wanted to sleep. It felt like forever since she had actually had a goodnights rest. She hadn't really slept at all since the group left the cabin, and that was almost a full 24 hours ago. Everyone around her was talking, but none of their words seemed to seep in. In what felt like just a blink, Harley was woken up by the sputtering of the Winnebago. When she looked out the RV's window to her right, the whole scene was different from when she had last looked; maybe she really had slept.

"Come on, you gotta let me out," Shane said gently to Harley, and gave her a gentle nudge on the shoulder. Harley nodded in agreement and slid out from the bench and then followed the group outside, leaving Andrea inside to figure out the entire workings of her gun.

Harley got off the RV, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. Lori and Carol were looking in the cars, "shopping, and Shane had found some water, so for the time being everyone was happy.

"How can we get around this?" Rick asked himself as he looked down the seemingly endless line of vehicles. Behind him, Daryl was sitting on his bike. Both of his hands were on his legs and both feet were planted on the asphalt, his eyes on Rick.

"Hi," Harley said tiredly as she approached Daryl. Daryl opened his mouth and was about to say something when Dale caught both of their attention. He raised a finger to his lips to silence everyone, and pointed out, past some cars. What happened next was all a haze. She couldn't remember how, but she ended up lying on her belly underneath an old gray Volvo. She could see the dragging feet of geeks as they walked right past her. Even though they all seemed to walk right on by her, every time she saw a set of feet her heart would start to race and she was sure that this was the one that would find her, and she would be trapped.

Under the car next to her, Lori kept a hand clamped over Carol, who had tears streaming down her face's, mouth. Looking at Carol made Harley start to feel a bit of panic, too. Because, just like Carol, Harley had no idea where Riley was. Maybe she'd already been bitten, Harley didn't know. The idea made her stomach turn, and instead of looking at Carol, who made that type of thought multiple, she clamped her eyelids shut. This would all be over, at some point. It had to, things always had a way of ending; good and bad.

"C'mon," Daryl said after what felt like an eternity. He reached under the Volvo and grabbed Harley's wrist and helped her get back up to her feet.

"Where's Riley?" Harley asked as she turned around, trying to see her sister.

"I don't know," Daryl admitted as he slid his hand down from her wrist to her hand and gently pulled her forward. He didn't want to seem insensitive, he really didn't, but he also didn't have time to play Doctor Phil. Who knew how many more walkers were coming their way? Just because it was quiet right now didn't mean anything.

Daryl came to a halt after they walked through a maze of cars, and Harley leaned up against one, running her hands through her hair and trying not to let anymore anxiety build up.

"This is your baby sister, Riley," Mrs. Scott, the kids all around the neighborhood lovingly called Riley and Harley's mom. She was the elementary school's fourth grade teacher, and had always been a favorite because she frequently brought candy in as a prize. Harley, who was nine years old at the time, crossed her arms and turned away from her mother, and stuck her nose up in the air.

"I don't want a baby sister," She said flatly, making her Mother's face drop. Harley looked a lot like her mother; the same big blue-green eyes, same dark brown, almost black, and the same delicately beautiful features.

"Too bad, you got one," Her father, who had entered the room from the kitchen, said as he took a sip of his coffee.

"Bradley!" Her mother snapped and then turned back to Harley and gave her a loving smile. "Here, hold her just once. You'll love her, I promise," She said and walked Harley over to their big off-white couch, and sat down beside her on it. Harley wanted to put up a fight against holding the new brat, but despite herself, she was a bit curious. Mrs. Scott then slowly placed the mound of pink blankets into Harley's arms. Peeking out through the folds of quilts, was the newborns little pink face, her eyes closed and her thumb in her mouth.

"Hi Riley," Harley said quietly, a new feeling washing over her. Even though she wanted to hate Riley, this new baby that was going to take away her parents time, and "half of her Christmas presents", as her father had joked to get a rise out of the little girl. Her Mother was right, she did love Riley.

"She's not so bad, is she?" Her mother whispered and placed a kiss on the top of Harley's head. Her mother had loved her, and she had shot her in the face. She had done the same to her father, grandmother and grandfather. Her stomach started to turn and she felt weak at the knees. Could she really do that again to Riley, if she got bitten?

"Git down!" Daryl hissed and tugged Harley down onto the cement. Harley had been so caught up in her thoughts that she hadn't even noticed another group of geeks heading their way. Daryl quickly grabbed a corpse from a car beside them and threw it over T-Dog, who had hit his arm off of a door and was still bleeding, and did the same to Harley. He didn't give her a warning, and seeing a dead man thrown on top of her almost merited a scream, luckily she somehow kept it in. The cement hadn't been in shadow, like when she was lying under the car. No, where she was laying now had been under the Southern sun all day, and scorched through her T-shirt and made her sweat, burn and ache, but she was too scared to move. Even her heart beat felt like too much; she knew the man on top of her was dead, but she felt like if she moved too much she wouldn't just alert some walkers, but also wake him up as well.

The corpse's face was right next to hers, the smell of his decay made her want to vomit and the feel of his hard, cold flesh on hers made her so uneasy. Daryl was next to her and made eye contact, he gave her a small smile and mouthed the words: "It's okay," It wasn't okay though.

She shouldn't have even been in Atlanta. She was supposed to stay in Boston that summer, and finish up some articles for work. But, Riley and her mother had convinced her to go to Atlanta, just one more summer. "It could be Grandma's last one," Her mother had said. That master manipulator.

At first, Harley had been glad she'd gone to Atlanta. It had been nice to sit on her grandparents porch, drink iced tea with Gram, and smoke some cigarettes with Gramp. But then, one Saturday morning Harley and Riley woke up to the sounds of screams. The girls jumped out of bed and ran down the stairs, Harley remembered to grab the pistol that her grandfather kept in the closet in the hallway. Harley took the lead from Riley as they descended the stairs. Their parents, Mr. and Mrs. Scott, were leaning over their grandparents, eating them as if they were turkey on Christmas. Riley threw up and fell down to a sitting position onto one of the steps from shock. Harley found herself paralyzed.

Looking back, Harley remember her mother and father had gone out for a walk before sunset and when they came back her other had been in a panic; some psychopath had bitten her and scratched at Harley's father. It was getting late by then though, and Gram had simply put some hydrogen peroxide on their cuts and promised to drive them to the hospital the next day to get it all checked out.

"Oh god," Riley had said as she started to bawl. Harley was still frozen; she didn't want to look. She didn't want to see her Grandmother's viscera be torn out by her own daughter and son in law. Her grandmother was wearing a silk shawl that morning, Harley remembered. Something about it seemed so symbolic to her, the blood and guts on her dainty and beautiful shawl.

Once Gram and Grampa weren't much besides mush, their parents started to walk over towards the stairs where Harley and Riley still stood. They looked different. They were still them, but their skin was a more purplish, sickly color and their eyes were a toxic green.

"Mom?" Harley called out, hoping her mom would respond and tell her that somehow, everything they had just witnessed was some kind of joke. Her mother let out a moan, her bony, dead looking fingers reaching out towards her daughters greedily, with their father at her heels doing the same thing. They got closer and closer and Harley's mind just seemed empty. She couldn't think. She wanted her parents to just snap out of it and tell her lunch would be ready in an hour. But they didn't. They got up two stairs and, just when her mother opened her mouth to reach out and take a bite out of Harley's right arm, that she picked the gun up, slid the safety lever and shot her own mother right in between the eyes, and repeated the action to her father. Their brains, blood and skull debris hit the wall behind them. Harley dropped onto one of the stairs, and just sat there, her eyes wide, helplessly looking down at the corpses of her own mother and father.

_Oh god, oh my good fucking god, I killed my parents. I killed my parents. The people that loved and raised me, I killed them._

"Mommy?" Harley rasped out as she slowly got back to her feet, her legs felt wobbly and tears were forming in her eyes, though she felt no sadness yet. She was too stunned to really feel anything at all.

"Harl?" Riley squeaked from behind her. Harley looked over her shoulder at Riley, and the look in Harley's eyes was something that would always haunt Riley. Her sister's eyes were huge and bloodshot, and the look of panic, confusion, and sadness made her appear to be a child; for the first time ever, Harley wasn't calm, cool and collected, and it terrified Riley even more than she already was.

"What did I do?" Harley howled sorrowfully as she looked up at the wall, and watched a skull fragment slowly slid down the wall through thick, maroon blood.

"Harl, they killed grandma and grandpa. . . I know it sounds weird, but I don't think they were. . . Themselves, you know?" Riley said, her voice was shaking and was so quiet she could hardly even hear herself. But, Harley nodded as if she understood. Harley sat back down on the stairs beside her sister, just staring at the bodies in awe, until finally their grandparents seemed to wake up and the whole ordeal was replayed again.

Daryl threw the body that was on top of him off and got to his feet. He strode over to Harley, and with his foot he kicked the body that laid on top of her off and gave her a hand up. Harley didn't say anything, but continued to hold his hand as she looked around again to see Riley.

"Don't worry, Harl," Daryl said in a soft whisper, which surprisingly actually did comfort her some. "She was with Andrea in the RV, I'm sure she's fine,"

"Sophia's gone!" Carol cried in the distance. Daryl dropped Harley's hand and the two of them made their way over to the group. Andrea and Riley were there; both were covered and blood and looked scared, but were okay. As mean as it was, Harley ignored Carol's sobs and tears and walked across the circle and pulled Riley into a huge. It didn't even matter she was covered in blood, she was so happy Riley was in one piece.

"You okay?" Harley asked in a quiet voice, as Rick and Daryl bounded into the woods to look for Sophia.

"Yeah. . . I'm fine," Riley stammered and continued to hold Harley close. From beside them, Andrea couldn't help but look on in jealousy. "Andrea saved me,"

"Thank you," Harley said to Andrea who nodded. With the relief of finding Riley, Harley could finally focus and turn back to the problem at hand; a little twelve year old girl was missing. She tried to comfort Carol, in vain, until Daryl and Rick came back. Much to Carol's dismay, the girl wasn't found and the group decided to go into the woods the next day to find her. Harley felt all the more grateful that Riley was alright.


	7. Sometimes, I wish

In the camper, Carol was crying. Lori stayed by her side and tried to console her, to tell her Sophia would be all right but the more anyone seemed to try and talk to the grieving woman, the worse it seemed to get. Harley felt bad for Carol, she really did. Seeing the tears stream down her face made Harley's stomach churn, and she wanted to hug her and somehow make it better, but she knew she couldn't and because of that she climbed up onto the top of the Winnebago to just sit and escape the sounds of sobbing. Harley held her knees to her chest and looked up at the stars. If there was one good thing about the end of times, it was the fact that all the lights being gone made the stars brighter than she'd ever seen them before, in Atlanta, no less.

As she looked up she thought back to her astronomy class, the one she'd had to take for her one of her core classes in college. She still remembered some constellations, like Virgo and Ursa Major. Though she didn't remember many, the stars were still calming. They may have been the only peaceful, constant thing she'd had in awhile, she figured.

"Hey, mind if I join ya?" Daryl asked as he rested his arms on the top of the RV, the lower half of his body remaining on the ladder.

"If star gazing doesn't bore you, then no," Harley replied.

"I don't mind that," Daryl said in a grin as he lifted himself onto the roof of the Winnebago and sat next to Harley, who was watching him.

"Do you think Sophia will turn up tomorrow?" Harley asked in a hushed tone, for fear Carol could hear them, as she returned her gaze to the heavens above.

"'Course I do," Daryl said seriously as he too looked up at the shining stars. "If I didn't, I wouldn't go tomorrah. It's too dangerous in them damn woods to risk my neck for somethin' I didn't think was worth a shot. Y'know?"

"I hope you're right," Harley sighed as she pulled her knees to herself just a little bit tighter as she thought of Sophia, a little girl out in the woods alone. Harley would agree the kid was dumb to not listen to Rick, but she was still just a child. Scared and alone in woods would have been scary enough without geeks roaming them.

"Of course I'm right," Daryl said and offered her a weak smile, hoping to lighten the mood a little. He, like Harley, couldn't stop thinking about Sophia, terrified in the woods, and the thought really unsettled him.

"Thanks for dealing with my freak out about not knowing where Riley was earlier," Harley said after a few seconds of silence. Though the quiet had been peaceful, Daryl was glad that Harley had broken it. He always felt comfortable when there was a silence with her, she had never made him feel awkward or uncomfortable (Sans the times when Merle had been around). Daryl liked that about her, she was a peaceful person, despite all the horrors around them she had seemed to keep her cool for the most part, or at least held it all together exceptionally well, and whether she actually was that calm or not didn't matter. She made him feel calm, and it was what he needed.

Daryl never would have thought it would have been Harley in the beginning that would give him all those lame emotions that he secretly relished. It was also just nice to have someone to talk to, now that Merle was gone. He looked away from the stars and turned to look at Harley, who was still staring up at the stars. Daryl put an arm around her shoulders, pulled her into his chest and rested his chin on top of her soft, dark hair.

"I wish it could just be like this forever," Harley said so quietly Daryl hardly even heard her. He couldn't think of anything to say, and instead only sighed and tightened his arm around her and brushed his fingers over her arm gently. Daryl, too, wished morning would never come. That they wouldn't have to go join the rest of the group, get stressed again, or see any more walkers. Besides the large throng of empty vehicles, some with corpses still sitting inside, it almost felt like a normal night. A really normal night, like the kind they could have had any time had they known one another before the epidemic.

"I know," Daryl finally said and kissed the top of her head before looking back up into the big, open night sky.

Eventually Daryl and Harley made their way back into the Winnebago, and slept in the tiny space, pack in like sardines with the other members of the group. But, they had no choice. Daryl would have loved to sleep on the roof of the RV, as would Harley, but what if a herd of walkers came by while they were asleep?

The group wasted no time in heading to the woods to search for Sophia. They trudged through the woods for most of the day without finding a single thing. They had found an old camp ground, where Daryl had opened up the tent to see if Sophia had taken refuge in there. She hadn't. All that was in there was a corpse; a man who had shot himself in the head. Though Harley wouldn't say it out loud, as she looked at the decaying body, she couldn't help but wonder if he had made the right move. Sure, Harley wasn't alone; she had Riley, and the whole group with her, but was life really worth living everyday when just going to the bathroom could be a horrifying experience?

"Nothin'," Daryl , who had been studying the ground and surroundings for a trace of Sophia, said from the head of the group. Rick, who was beside him just hung his head low. Harley, who was near the back of the group with Riley, Lori and Carol, sighed as she put a reassuring hand on Carol's shoulder, who had tensed up again after hearing that once again, there was no sign of her little girl.

"We'll find something, don't worry," Lori said to Carol, and looked up and made eye contact with Harley who instantly caught the hint, and agreed with her. Carol didn't speak at all, but she did seem a bit calmer, as in she wasn't hyperventilating anymore. The group then continued to walk, in nearly complete silence. The only noises they made were from an occasional cough, or stepping on a falling tree branch. Harley had always hated the woods; something about them always made her feel like she needed a shower immediately, so when the group finally made it to a clearing, the a church smack in the middle, she felt a bit relieved. Harley wasn't religious, especially after the world ending; she couldn't understand how anyone could think a God existed after this mess. She would, however, take a church over the woods any day. After clearing out the walkers who were inside the church, almost everyone went inside; some to pray, some to just sit down. Harley stayed outside. Glenn was around the corner trying to find a way to make the church's bells ring, so that if Sophia was within earshot she would know that people were around and could hopefully find them.

"Have you found the button yet?" Harley asked impatiently as she looked over her shoulder to make sure no walkers emerged from the brush. Walking through the woods with a big group big of people was one thing, being outside alone with Glenn was a completely different one. Neither of them had a gun; all that had been left for guns were rifles. Harley was a good shot, but she couldn't shoot a damn rifle to save her life. The kick on them was too much for her, and always made her bullets go much higher than she aimed.

"No, not yet," Glenn called back. Harley sighed and crossed her arms over her chest.

"Chink, you found the button yet? Everyone's asking inside," Daryl said from the threshold of the church.

"No," Glenn replied, a little bit of frustration evident in his voice. Whether it was over everyone asking him if he'd found the button, or the fact he couldn't seem to locate it, Harley wasn't sure.

"Here, I'll help," Daryl said, much to the dismay of Glenn who told him more than once he didn't need any. To add to Glenn's displeasure, Daryl found the button for the bells within fifteen seconds. Daryl didn't say anything to Glenn, who's brow was furrowed and his mouth in a deep frown. Instead, Daryl walked by him and over to Harley, who was still standing look out in front of the church.

"Did you pray?" Harley asked as Daryl linked his fingers with hers. Daryl chuckled, though there was a touch of sadness to the laugh.

"What would I fuckin' pray for? More whiskey?" He asked.

"I don't think that would be a bad wish," Harley replied in a shrug. Daryl took a look over Harley's head, and saw no one coming from the church, and while the coast was still clear, he leaned down and kissed Harley. He kept the motions of his mouth so gently, and she hers, that they almost couldn't feel one another. Almost. Daryl reached up and ran his rough fingers over her cheek before pulling back. Harley almost frowned as Daryl broke away. She knew he had to, there were a lot of people around, no privacy and a walker could easily have crept up behind one of them. But still, she didn't want him to go, as pathetic as it sounded, it was true. Something about Daryl felt nice to her, he was protective and she wasn't terrified constantly, when he was around.

Soon after the rest of the group came out of the church. They decided then that they would split up into two groups, to help the odds of finding Sophia. Rick, Shane and Carl all headed off in the opposite direction of the rest, and soon were out of sight. As before, Daryl took the lead of the group. Harley, who stayed at the back, couldn't help but be a bit jealous of his lack of fear. Harley hung near the back for a reason, she was too scared to have it any other way. Daryl also seemed to always know what to do, and that was another reason Harley couldn't help but be a bit jealous, as she felt clueless all the time.

"Are you with Daryl now?" Riley whispered from beside Harley. Thankfully, other people in the group were talking now as well, so no one heard Riley.

"No, I mean. . . I don't know," Harley stammered.

"People in the camp were talking about you two last night," Riley said. "So I was just wondering,"

"What did people say?"

"Not a lot. T-Dog said he didn't expect the 'redneck' to get any, or something. Whatever that means," Riley shrugged. "Everyone else said they thought it was nice. They think you might've helped him actually talk to other people in the camp, and help out. So go you, I guess," Riley shrugged.

"I'm pretty sure I didn't help him do anything," Harley said as she took an extra big step to avoid snapping a branch under her booted foot. The group walked on longer, until they heard a loud shot deeper into the woods. Everyone stopped dead in their tracked.

"What was that?"


	8. Campus life

**Author's note: Hey guys! Sorry this took so very long. I've been really, really busy. So, I decided I couldn't do that just barely touching on the series in my story crap I was doing. I just felt like my whole chapters were summaries, so I decided to take it in a different direction.**

**Also, rates make me a very happy person. So, please rate? :)**

It wasn't too awful long after the gunshot had sounded out through the woods that a woman riding a horse had come out of no where, seeming like some kind of super hero, to take Lori back to her farm house, where she said she was needed by Rick. They left. The rest of the group continued to look for Sophia in the woods, but with no avail. A few days past in the same way, eat, sleep, look in cars for things that they could use, walk in the woods, nail a couple of walkers, repeat. There finally came a time when the Grimes' came back from the farmhouse. Carl, who had been shot, was weaker than before but was patched up and in the healing process. Much to Carol's dismay, and with the heavy heart of everyone in the group, they decided to move on.

"Don't worry, we won't be going too far away," Harley had said softly to Carol who had begun to have tears run down her cheeks as they first started to drive away from the highway. "We can still look for her,"

No one really knew where they were going, and after about a half hour of clueless driving, Dale stopped the Winnebago and turned around in the drivers seat, so that he could look at everyone who was seated in the back.

"We have to get a plan together, guys," Dale said in a sigh and looked down at his khaki-clad lap. "We just don't have the gas to keep driving aimlessly," Everyone was silent for a few seconds. They all knew he was right but no one knew where they should go. No one wanted to suggest a place that was full of walkers, or already was taken by someone who wasn't too eager to share. Daryl had been riding his brother Merle's motorcycle in front of the RV; he didn't notice right away that the van had stopped, but when he did, he simply groaned and turned around. He stopped next to the driver's window, where Dale told him the problem at hand.

"I know," Riley piped up. When everyone's eyes turned to her, she turned a little red but continued to speak. "M-my mom took me to a college trip the summer before I went into high school, when we were here in Atlanta. The place we spent the most time was the University of Atlanta, though. Some people showed us dorms rooms, and they're a decent size and there are a LOT of them." Everyone went silent.

"It's a college campus though, there's bound to be a ton of walkers there. . . " Shane said.

"Maybe, maybe not," Harley said thoughtfully after a few seconds silence after Shane. Harley was still looking out the window, thinking through her sisters idea carefully. "Colleges are usually pretty quick on evacuation or quarantines. I remember when I was in college, there was a case of the flu going around and administration was quick to either keep them locked in their rooms, or send them home. Not to mention, going to a college means there would be a cafeteria. . . Food that's designed to last, easy to make and a hell of a lot of it. . ."

"You got me sold on the food," Glenn said from beside her.

"It's the best idea we've got right now," Dale agreed in a nod. No one spoke up to disagree, so Dale told Daryl where they were headed and then started down the highway again. The ride was for the most part silent. Everyone wanted to talk and try to lighten the mood, but it was hard with Carol's sobs echoing from the back of the Winnebago. Every time someone would try and talk she would only seem to cry harder.

After about a half hours worth of driving, they reached a big wooden sign that read "WELCOME TO UA: UNIVERSITY OF ATLANTA." Everyone exchanged nervous, but excited glances as they turned down the road. There were a few dorms to choose from, but the best bet was the oldest, they decided. It was an old brick building, and despite it's being so old it looked like it has the best resistance. The old building also had an empty bell tower at the top; perfect for watch. Dale parked in a spot that once was for fifteen minute parking, and Daryl pulled in beside him and got off of his motorcycle.

Before they got their things from the Winnebago, they decided that looking through the dorm first would be a good plan. The first floor was a lobby that had a small kitchen and office attached, and then there was a door that branched out to the first floor of dorm rooms. Rick, Daryl and Glenn walked through the long, narrow hallway calling out for some other survivors, or to see if any walkers were wandering while Andrea and Harley looked through the office for something useful. The coast was clear through the first floor dorms and the men came back to the office before going to the second floor.

"Didya find anything?" Daryl asked as he leaned a shoulder against the offices doorframe.

"Sure did," Andrea said in a smile, and from behind her Harley held up a ring of keys; they wouldn't have to deal with trying to unlock any doors with bobby pins or any other make-shift key.

"Also," Andrea said as she turned towards the desk that was to the corner of the room. "Found this," She said and handed Rick a thick manila folder. Rick flipped open to the first page and skim read it. Nearly as soon as the outbreak had started to happen, and students started to get infected, the whole campus had been evacuated. The coast was clear afterall.

"This is good news," Rick said in a smile as he handed Andrea back the folder. "But, I still want to check out the other floors," And with that, he and Daryl continued towards the stairwell, and Harley and Andrea followed. The next three floors were bigger, but were all rooms, with two big communal bathrooms per floor, a laundry room, and what was once a study lounge for students tucked away in a corner, farther away from the rooms. After finishing checking all four floors, the group went back outside and got the rest of the group, and brought them in.

"So, here's the deal," Rick said, as everyone crowded in the lobby of the dorm. "We're all going to be staying on the top floor, fourth. It's smaller than the other floors, so we'll all be closer, and it's farther from the ground which makes it safer. We're going to have to come down here a lot though, since the kitchen is here, but no one comes downstairs or outside alone. Got it?" He asked, everyone tiredly nodded, and with that Rick then led them up all four flights of stairs.

"Wait, I get my own bedroom?" Riley asked as Andrea unlocked a bedroom door for Riley.

"If you want one to yourself, yeah," Andrea said in a smile.

"If I want one? Are you kidding? Of course I do!" Harley exclaimed as she bolted through the door of her new room, finally she'd have privacy.

"Don't go anywhere alone. If you need anything your sister is directly across the hall from you," Andrea called after Riley as she let the door slam shut. She then walked down the hall and continued to unlock doors for everyone.

Harley's room was surpassingly big. She threw what few articles of clothing she had into one of the bureaus, pushed the two twin beds together, and then sat on the edge of the now king sized bed. Whoever had left this room had done it in a hurry. There were still white Christmas lights strung up around her bed (which she turned on, and was delighted when there seemed to be electricity), notebooks on the desk, some clothes wearable clothes in the closet and. . . No way, Harley thought. A bag of make up was still lying on the desk as well. Harley got up from the bed and unzipped it. Sure enough, there were multiple shades of eye shadow's, blushes, lipsticks, lip glosses, and so on. Sadly, whoever had owned this make up was a much tanner skin tone than ivory colored Harley. She knew she should save it, for some time when she really needed, but hell… She missed doing her make up. Harley wasn't super feminine personality wise, but she always did have a soft spot for nice clothes and make up. She put a little bit of pink blush on the apples of her cheeks, rounded her eyes with a thin line of black eyeliner, put a little tinting of red on her lips and put mascara on her lashes. She took a step back from the mirror and looked at herself, and smiled. Harley had missed actually feeling pretty. She was about to turn around and inspect the clothes the previous resident had left, when there was a loud knock at her door. She swung the door open and there stood Daryl.

"Hey," She smiled and stepped out of the way so he could walk in. Daryl was shocked for a second upon looking at her. The way the Christmas lights made her face glow, and the red lipstick she was wearing. She was always beautiful, he figured there was no questioning that. But this was different, she looked warm, friendly and happy for once.

"Are you okay?" Harley asked. Daryl looked down at his boots and laughed.

"Yeah, I'm fine," He replied and looked back up to meet her green-blue eyes. "Everyone's headin' downstairs to have dinner. Figured I'd come get yah," He shrugged.

"Thanks," Harley smiled as she stepped out into the hallway with Daryl, leaving the dorm room's door open just enough not to latch, so that Andrea wouldn't have to unlock it, again. Once downstairs, two big plates of spaghetti were sitting on the table in the lounge where a big screen TV and xbox still were lying, collecting dust. The group had pushed together all three tables that were in the lounge, to make one big long table to accommodate everyone. Everyone talked and was generally pretty jolly through dinner, and most everyone stayed even after dinner to continue talking. Carol was the only person who left directly after dinner, as expected. Almost three hours of just gabbing passed and finally, the group was ready for bed.

"I don't need you to tuck me in," Riley scoffed as Harley followed her into her room. Riley's room was considerably smaller than Harley's; the two beds were bunked though, which did get her some extra space.

"I know you don't," Harley said as she sat on the edge of Riley's bed, while Riley slid into her sleeping bag. "But, I wanted to say goodnight," Harley replied as she tucked a lock of Riley's light red hair behind her ear. Riley didn't look a lot like Harley or their mother. It was easy to tell they were all related, because of the eyes, but other than that one feature, Riley was the spitting image of their father. The same, tightly curled and often frizzy, strawberry blonde hair, and the same wiry thin frame.

"Well, thanks," Riley muttered and rolled over on her side so that her back was facing Harley. She secretly loved Harley's attention. Secretly being the key word. And, when she felt the weight at the end of her bed lift, and heard the door shut her heart sank a little.

"Didya tell 'er a bedtime story?" Daryl mocked after Harley shut Riley's bedroom door. Daryl had waited outside Riley's bedroom, leaning against the wall across from her door, for Harley.

"Shut up," Harley said in a snicker as she and Daryl walked to their rooms, which were side by side. Harley nudged her door open with her foot and looked in. The room was pitch black, and eerie. She hadn't slept alone in. . . Well, it felt like forever. As excited as she had been to know she could have a peaceful night sleep without Shane's snoring, or Glenn's sleep talking, now she wished they were all together because after the end of the world happened, she had to admit she was a little afraid of the dark now.

"Well, g'night," Daryl said as he slowly continued to walk towards his door.

"Daryl," Harley called after him. He stopped and turned to look at her. "Will you stay with me?" She asked, feeling really annoying, but she also knew if he didn't she might not sleep at all.

"God damn it, yer so fuckin' pathetic," Daryl said as he walked into Harley's room, but as he spoke, Harley could see the smile broadening on his lips. Daryl sat on the edge of the bed and kicked off his boots, and rested his crossbow against the dresser that was beside the bed. "This room is fuckin' huge," Daryl mused as he looked around and rolled his socks off of his feet.

"I know, I got lucky," Harley said in a smile as she walked over to the bed and laid down. Daryl followed her lead, and wrapped an arm over her side. Harley thought that that would be all for the night, as Daryl wasn't much of a talker, in the least. But, he surprised her, he had started to talk as the lay together, their faces so close they almost touched. The two of them talked all night, about nearly everything. Some stories they had heard before, and they also learned some new things about one another. Harley didn't remember falling asleep, but apparently she had because when morning came, she woke up. Daryl was already gone by the time she had woken up, but had left her a note saying he and the other men had headed out into town to get some more supplies for the dorm, and then were heading back to he high way to look for Sophia. Everyone who hadn't gone out for supplies, had congregated in the little study lounge. Andrea and Lori were sitting on a couch in the back of the room, by the windows, while Riley sat at the table, scribbling out some of her infamous super depressing poetry, with Carl by her side coloring. Harley could only assume Carol had not felt like socializing, and had stayed in the solitude of her room.

"Good morning, sunshine," Lori called as Harley entered.

"Hey," Harley said in a yawn as she walked over to them and sat down on the couch in between them.

"How last night for you?" Andrea asked in a wink. Harley rolled her eyes, but grinned.

"Nothing happened," Harley said flatly.

"Look, I can't say I've always been a fan of the Dixon's… At all. But, Daryl's been a lot nicer since you and him have been spending time with each other, and hell, he's a cutie," Andrea said as she traced the rim of her coffee mug with her index finger. "And, not to mention, who can complain about a lay at this point?" she added in a hushed tone, which both Harley and Lori nodded and said "amen" to. The women sat around in the lounge, gossiping and talking and finally got up and went downstairs to make food with what little food the dorm's kitchen had to offer. Just about when dinner was ready, the men came back.

"Got a present fer ya'll," Daryl said, with that impish grin on his face.

"What?" Lori asked, looked from Daryl to Rick, who had a matching smile to Daryl's, worriedly. Daryl didn't reply, but simple opened up the bag he had been carrying in his hands, it was filled with booze.

"We're gonna have fun tonight," Daryl whispered in Harley's ear, then gave her a wink.


	9. Party

Carl was safely tucked in upstairs in the Grimes' room, and Riley in her own. Carol had decided to go to bed as well, the idea of 'partying' while her little girl made her feel even worse than she already did, even though quite a few camp members had asked her stay, hoping that being around people and maybe the numbing warmth of alcohol could help calm her, but she had refused. Carol had instead insisted of staying in her room, the room across from the Grimes', so that Carl didn't have to be alone, just in case. Andrea had walked Carol and Carl upstairs, in part for keeping Carol some company, but she had also claimed she needed to get something from her room. When Andrea came back to lounge where everyone was congregated, passing around a bottle of Vodka in a big circle, she held something up in her hands, with a smirk across her face.

"The people who lived in my room before me were a bit of partiers, I guess," Andrea said as she walked across the room and put down the four shot glasses that had cheesy sayings scrawled across them on the table.

"Daryl, you get first shot. You found all of this," Dale said as he inched a glass towards Daryl, that in purple black letters read 'I CAN DRINK ALL YOU BITCHES UNDER THE TABLE'. Daryl smirked when he read the slogan on it.

"That's something I won't say no to," Daryl said as he grabbed the bottle of Smirnoff from the table and poured his shot glass full. "She's takin' one with me though," He added and nodded towards Harley, who sighed and rolled her eyes, but smiled regardless.

"If I have to," Harley said sarcastically. Daryl picked up the glass that in sparkly pink cursive said PRINCESS.

"Oh, you have tuh," Daryl said as he turned the bottle downwards to fill the shot glass with the clear liquid. Daryl slammed the glass bottle down on the table then picked up his glass. Harley rose to her feet so that she could meet him, plus taking shots standing had always seemed easier to her.

"Cheers," Harley said and lightly tapped her shot glass against Daryl's so that the two made a small clinking sound. With that, the pair placed their glasses to their lips, tilted their heads back and downed their shots in one swift motion, both placing their shot glasses back on the table in unison. Daryl caught Harley's eye for an instant as they were both still in the action of putting down the glasses. He gave her a wink and licked his lips of stray vodka, his simple action making her heart beat faster.

The group spent the night taking turns taking shots and telling stories. They cleaned out the bottle of vodka and then moved onto tequila, much to Harley's dismay. She could easily drink both, but their effects on her were always negative. Harley and her friends had always joked that her inner 'demon' came out when she drank vodka especially. After doing only one shot of the new bottle of tequila, Harley got to her feet and walked across the lounge to the window. It was cracked and some breeze was coming through, thankfully, it was still hot in Atlanta and she was sweating a little bit just sitting. She had already done eight shots that night and she was very drunk as it was, and figured taking a break wasn't a bad plan.

"Whatcha doin'?" Daryl asked from behind her as he placed his hands on her hips and pulled her into his chest.

"Just lookin'," Harley replied. It was so dark she couldn't see a lot of the campus, but it did have a lot of tall trees, flowers and stone benches. It was safe to say this had probably been a beautiful campus at one point in time. Harley turned away from the window and looked up at Daryl. When he saw her eyes, bloodshot as all hell, he couldn't help but laugh. He had to give her credit though, especially since he was pretty drunk too and they'd had the same amount, that she held herself together well.

"How yah feelin'?" Daryl asked Harley, with a big smirk playing on the corners of his lips. Harley sighed contentedly and leaned in a tiny bit and rested her chin on his chest.

"I feel good. How do you feel?" She asked back, looking up at him.

"I feel better now," Daryl whispered in her ear as he wrapped an arm around her waist.

"Oh no. Can someone go get Glenn some water. . . And a bucket?" Lori asked from behind them. Dale was the one who got to his feet from the table and walked out of the lounge to go to the bathroom in the lobby to search. Daryl looked over his shoulder, and saw Glenn laying back in his chair, his eyes closed and face pallid. Daryl snorted a laugh, of course it was the chink to party too hard.

"So," Harley said, removing her chin from his chest and getting on tip toes so her lips met his ear. "Was drinking all you had planned when you told me we're going to have fun tonight?" Her hot breath on his ear, and her low, sexy voice along with her body pressed to his. It was too much, especially on top of what he knew she was implying.

"Well, I had some other plans. But, you might be too drunk," Daryl replied, arching an eyebrow. As much as he wanted to pick her up and throw her over his shoulder, he had to tease her a bit first.

"I'm not too drunk for anything. Well, maybe a couple things. But sure as hell not for what we're talking about,"

"And what are we talking about?" Daryl asked. The look on her face was priceless, and he had to bite on his lip pretty hard in order to not erupt into gut wrenching laughter.

"Sex!" Harley exclaimed, her eyes wide. She had spoken much louder than she'd intended on, and slapped a hand over her mouth as a few heads of other group mates turned to look at her.

"That's what you were talkin' about? I was talkin' 'bout watching some grass grow outside," Daryl said, unable to help but chuckle a little. In the corner of the room, behind Daryl, Glenn started to vomit again, just as Dale came back. The sound of his gagging, made Harley feel nauseous as well. Hearing anyone vomit ever made her feel a little sick, let alone when she was intoxicated on top of it.

"Come on," Harley said, taking Daryl's hand and dragging him out of the lounge behind her.

"Where are you takin' me, woman?" Daryl asked.

"To go watch grass grow," She replied, but in a soft tone, a sexy tone. Once the door to the lounge latched behind Daryl she grabbed his shoulder and shoved him against the wall, placing her arms on his shoulders and kissed him hard. Daryl almost forgot how to breathe in that second; Harley had always been so passive, that her taking such rough initiative was a surprise. A very pleasant surprise, but a surprise nonetheless. Daryl wrapped his arms around her and slowly ran his hands down her back until he reached her ass, and cupped his hands there. Their kisses got progressively more needy, they kissed one another so fast that they both almost lot their breath multiple times. Harley finally pulled back, biting down gently on Daryl's lip as she detached from the kiss, making him groan a little. When she was fully away he gripped her as a little tighter, making her squeal.

"Upstairs. Now?" Harley asked, giving him her biggest, pleading grin, as if she really needed to beg for it.

"Yer wish is mah command," Daryl replied as he scooped Harley up in his arms and walked to the stairwell, and hiked all four flights of stairs, carrying her while she protested walking would be more than okay. Daryl rounded the corner of the hall and kicked open Harley's bedroom door and threw her on the bed as the door loudly slammed shut behind them. Daryl stood over the bed for a second, just looking at Harley as she lay there, propped up by her arms, looking back at him. She still had that red lipstick on, and god did it look amazing against her ivory skin and dark hair. She just looked amazing in general. Daryl finally placed on knee on the edge of the bed and leaned over her.

"Yah sure yah want this?" He asked with his forehead to hers.

"I do," Harley said quietly as she reached down for the hem of his shirt and yanked at it a couple of times before successfully pulling it over his head. Daryl repeated her motion and then quickly unlatched her black lace bra. He could already feel his jeans getting considerably tighter, even worse than it had been when she had pinned him to the wall outside of the lounge, and that was pretty fuckin' hot.

Daryl slid his hands up her stomach and stopped when he got to her breasts, he squeezed them, kneaded and finally placed his mouth to one of her nipples and sucked and nipped at it, making her gasp. After doing that for a couple of minutes, Harley ran her hand through his brown hair and tugged it gently, and brought his face back to hers. She slid her tongue into his mouth and massaged his tongue with hers. During the kiss, Harley reached down and found his belt, and with a bit of a blind struggle finally was able to get it off and then undo the zipper and button of his jeans, and slid both his jeans and boxers down as her arms would allow. Daryl pulled back from Harley and took his jeans off the other way, letting them drop to the floor to add to the pile his and Harley's shirts had already started. He looked down at Harley and gave her a devilish grin before he leaned back down and kissed her hip bone. He then started to suck and bite at it, which was an odd sensation; it hurt, but at the same time the warmth of his mouth on the spot felt amazing, making Harley's body start to tingle all the more. Daryl got back up, unable to handle the throbbing erection he was dealing with any longer, and as quickly as humanly possible got rid of Harley's jeans for her.

Both were drunk, and lusting, and foreplay was easily skipped. Daryl leaned down and kissed her one more time before entering her. He started off slow at first, and worked his way to a quicker pace. As his speed quickened he reached down and grabbed Harley's hips tightly. Harley let out a moan and dug her nails into his shoulder blades a little, a kind of stinging feeling that only made him drive into her harder and faster.

"Jesus christ!" Daryl exclaimed as he could feel himself getting closer. Sweat was pouring off of his brow and body. He knew the end was coming up soon, and he pulled himself into her as deep as he could, to try and make those last few thrusts worth both of their while. He was relieved when he could feel her start to tighten around him while her breath quickened even more than it already had. Her back arched and her head was thrown back when Daryl came.

"Holy shit," Harley whispered as Daryl plopped down on the bed beside her, trying to catch his breath.

"What does tha' mean?" Daryl asked as he looked over from his pillow at her. She smiled and rolled over on her side and gently touched his arm with her finger tips.

"It means 'fucking amazing'," She replied and gave him a tender kiss on the lips. "Daryl?"

"Yeah?"

"Will spend the night in here again tonight?"

"I was planning on it," Daryl said as he snaked an arm around her waist and pulled her close to him. He looked down at her, and her eyes were still a bit blood shot; hell, he was sure his were too. He had sobered up a bit, but he still felt the grip of alcohol holding him tightly, and he assumed she felt the same.

"Good," Harley said, her voice barely audible. Daryl looked down at her and saw that she had drifted to sleep; her long, dark eyelashes were brushing her lower lid and her breathing was slow and heavy, the telltale sign for sleep.

"G'night," Daryl whispered and kissed her forehead.


	10. Newcomers

**Author's note: Hey everyone! Sorry this chapter took so freakin' long to get out. My work load for classes and what not has been ridiculous as of late. But, here is chapter 10! Yay, finally in double digits and not ditched it yet! Obviously this chapter is heavily inspired by last weeks episode.**

**Also, if you like this story, the more reviews=the quicker next chapter comes out.**

When Daryl awoke the next morning when the sun shone brightly, annoyingly through the window above the bed, and rested on his face making him uncomfortably hot and break out in sweat. He rolled over to reach out for Harley, and was shocked to realize she was gone. All that was left of her was the mussed comforter and indented pillows from where her head had earlier laid. For a brief moment panic struck Daryl.

_You shoulda known you'd only be a drunk toy fer fuckin' to her, boy. A girl like that don't want no redneck trash like yerself. Bitch's like her want a Ken doll. They all think you's a joke, you know. They all laugh at how dumb you is. Why would that bitch be any dif'rent?_ Merle's voice rang out in his head. Daryl tried to shake it away, but he couldn't. Even as Daryl got up from the big, warm bed Merle's voice whispered to him, promising him that no one cared for him. No one ever had, or ever would for that matter. As he slid on his Levi's Merle's voice died out only to have his own replaced it.

Why would a girl like Harley M. Scott want him? She was educated, beautiful, didn't have a drawled accent, an A+ personality, had a good paying job, had a loving family, lots of friends, her list of good traits went on and on. The last woman Daryl had been with, that wasn't a sloppy one night stand, had been with a woman named Mona. She had been tall, with an alright face that was rendered to less than desirable because her caked on make up. Caked on might not even be the right word, slathered seemed more accurate. She hadn't graduated high school, and boy did that show. The woman talked and acted like a middle schooler. Mona generally dated older, rich men for her income. Mona had been in between "jobs" when she met Daryl. The two hardly ever talked, it was constant sexual encounters. Daryl still didn't even know her last name. As Daryl buttoned up his red flannel shirt, Merle's voice cackled in his head and mocked: 'Mona is the best you'll ever have, boy. And that sure as hell ain't sayin' a whole helluva lot,'

Once fully dressed, Daryl walked down the stairs and down into the lounge. No one was there, except for Carl and Riley, who sat on one of the red loveseats at the table. Her frizzy ginger hair was pulled back and she was wearing a pair of glasses he had only seen her wear a handful of times since they met however many months ago.

"Hey, where is e'ryone?" Daryl asked as he stopped in the doorframe, and rested his shoulder against it.

"Some people got here in a van, everyone's outside talking with them and figuring out what to do," Riley said, her voice almost seemed to have a cold edge to it. She had been ditched by the adults, and left to babysit. And she hated it. Even at the end of times, she was still 'just a child'.

"Okay thanks, Riley," Daryl said and started to turn on his black work booted foot and head to outside.

"Daryl," Riley called out, somewhat hesitantly. Daryl turned back around to look at her. For the first time Daryl could remember her eyes met his. Riley hardly ever made eye contact, it was some insecurity thing, he figured. She had the same ocean colored eyes as Harley. Same shape, same color, same black, curly lashes. "I heard you and my sister last night," She said in a low tone. Daryl's cheeks turned red and he looked down at the maroon colored mat that he stood on to avoid looking at her.

"Er, sorry,"

"I don't care about that," Riley said, her voice gaining more strength as she became more sure of herself. Riley put her thin fingers on the dusty wood table and hoisted herself up to her feet to get a better look at Daryl. Despite knowing it was wrong, she liked the feeling of intimidating someone, being able to lord something over someone's head, especially Daryl. Masculine, the hunter, the fighter Daryl. "Well, I mean I do. Ew, it was kind of really gross to hear. I've seen the way you act. How you lash out at people, always wanting to fight. I'm just telling you, if you hurt my sister-"

"Are you threatenin' me? Tell me Miss Riley, what'll you do to me?" Daryl asked in a laugh as he took a step forward towards the petite teenager. The closer Daryl got the more Riley backed down. Daryl was a lot taller than her, and had a whole lot more muscle. "Listen, little girl," He spat, making her cower down but at the same time he saw a glimmer of defiance in her eyes; he knew she hated being referred to as a child more than anything left on this damned Earth. "You don't know nothing about me an' your sister. She's a grown woman an' can take care o' herself, alright?" Daryl said. Riley was sitting down on the love seat again, looking down at her folded hands that were placed in her lap. She didn't move or say anything, not a centimeter and Daryl wasted no time to leave the lounge to get out of the tense situation and go outside to rejoin the group. It was as he descended the thick concrete steps of the dorms walkway that he regretted being so harsh with Riley. She had meant well, she only wanted to protect Harley. But Daryl was a Dixon man, and he had been raised since he could remember not to take lip like that, no matter what. Even if it was an awkward fifteen year old girl. He had simply been reacting in the only way he knew how, even if it wasn't the right way.

In the parking lot the group was circled between Dale's Winnebago and a new, big black van that had tinted windows and the license plate spray painted over. Rick was talking with a man, who was tall with tanned skin and a goatee. Everyone seemed to be watching the two's exchange so intently that no one even noticed Daryl's arrival. His heart started to have that sinking feeling again as he got closer and even Harley didn't spare him a sideways glance. Maybe Merle was right. Maybe Mona was the best damn thing he could ever get. Slutty, stupid, nearly brain dead, Mona. Maybe Harley was just one nights good luck streak.

Finally, Harley turned her head and beamed widely when she saw Daryl. She mouthed 'hey' to him and extended an arm, which when he was close enough she snaked around his waist. It was all Daryl could do to not sigh in relief; boy, that would have been awkward if she had decided she regretted him. Maybe Merle was wrong… Maybe they all didn't laugh when he was around. Maybe Harley could be his. Maybe he could prove himself to be more than hillbilly waste. Maybe…

"Y'all can stay, but you gotta help contribute to the camp. We all gotta try and pull our weight around. Y'hear?" Rick was saying the tall man, who's two compadres stood behind him: another man and one woman.

"That's a deal we can keep," answered the man. He reached out, took Rick's hand in his own and gave it a hearty shake. "You'll hardly even know we're here," With that, the newcomers all grabbed their things from the black van, or as Harley referred to it later as she and Daryl settled down for the night, 'the creeper van'. After Andrea had unlocked rooms for the new members of the group and they settled in, everyone congregated down in the lounge.

"I'm Lucien," said the tall man who crossed his arms over his chest, placing his hands under his tattooed biceps to make them appear bigger. "This is Rosa, and Miguel." Daryl rolled his eyes at just how cliché their names were. Rick then introduced his group and everyone sat around and talked for awhile, trying to become comfortable with the newcomers. As Harley sat in between Daryl and Riley observing the new group members, she couldn't help but notice Niall, a short, bug eyed man with a sparsely grown in moustache, continually looking over at her and Riley, eyeing them over as if they couldn't see him. Though his stares made her a uncomfortable, she tried to let them just roll of her back and ignore them, assuring herself she only was suspicious of him because of her memories of Bill and all that had happened in the cabin.

"I'm gonna go look fer Sophia," Daryl said as he got up from the table, clearly hearing enough from the new members of their little family. Harley had to admit, Daryl might not have had the wrong idea. All three of the newbie's stories were long, hard to listen to, and didn't seem to have any kind of punch line.

"Thank you, Daryl," Carol whispered as he walked past her seat at the table, grabbing his forearm gently. Daryl only grunted in recognition as he gripped tighter onto the leather sling of his crossbow. Harley followed him out of the lounge and outside under the awning of the front door.

"God those fuckin' spics are annoyin'," Daryl sighed once the front door was closed behind the two of them. "I hope they leave soon," He added. Harley faked a laugh, just to humor him. Truth of the matter was, she didn't like him leaving. Not alone, no way. Sure, Rick had given him a map of the woods he had found near the nature preserve entrance, and Daryl almost always worked alone. She still didn't like it though; not with walkers out there, and the million other things that could go wrong.

"Be careful, okay?" Harley said with her fingers still entwined with Daryl's loosely.

"Yah ain't my maw," Daryl said, almost cringing at the sound of his voice. His statement had come out sounding much meaner than he had intended. "I'll be fine," He assured her and leaned down to kiss her.

"You better be," Harley joked as she got on her tip toes for one more quick peck before he left. She watched as he walked away, mounted his motorcycle, and sped away. Harley sighed, and knew she no longer could avoid going back inside and so she did. She sat down next to Riley again, and continued to listen to the same stories from the newcomers until eventually, the women decided to go prepare something for everyone to eat.

"Is this the right group?" Miguel whispered into Lucien's ear, who studied the group in front of him, all smiling and chatting. It was Harley though he watched as she walked away from him to exit the lounge. It had to be her his boss had been telling them about. Some brown hair, pale skin, hourglass figure, how many women could be alive to fill that description anymore?

"I think we hit the jackpot, buddy," Lucien whispered back to Miguel, with a sly smile crossing his lips his he cradled his chin in his palm. "We'll be resting easy real soon,"

"So, I have a though," Harley said as she pulled herself up and sat on the beige counter top of the tiny pocket that was the kitchen.

"And what's that?" Lori asked as she reached next to Harley to open the cupboard and grab a box of Mac 'n cheese. It wasn't really what anyone wanted for dinner, but it'd have to do. There wasn't much left for food in the kitchen anymore, not since they'd settled down in the dorms a few nights ago.

"I'm preaching to the choir when I say we're running low on food," Harley said. The three other women all nodded, but Harley had caught their attention now. "We're on a college campus. There has to be a cafeteria somewhere. Assuming someone hasn't beaten us to it, they'd have all kinds of different foods, a lot of it, and it'd all still be good with quite a bit longer 'til expiring."

"Oh, Harley…" Lori sighed. "That'd be wonderful, all of that food. But we don't know if there are walkers around there, or inside…"

"I know. I'm just saying we should think about it. If the food still is there, that's too much to pass up,"

Daryl trudged through the woods, fallen leaves crunching beneath his boot as he called out to Sophia every few feet. As he was waling, there was a space where the trees were sparse and he could see down into the cove below, and something in it caught his eye. It was white and red, and clashed beside the grayish sand and rocks and blue lake. Daryl knelt down on the edge of the drop from the woods to the cove, and squinted to try and see what it was that was out there. It could be nothing, he figured, but he wasn't so sure. Daryl tried to lean forward just a fraction of an inch more to try and get a better look when the rock he had his knee leaning against slid, making him lose his balance and skid down the rocky drop to the cove below. As he was falling, a sharp pain took him over in his side. It was such a jolt that it took his mind off his rolling down a hill completely. It wasn't until he got to the bottom, and was finally able to lie still, that he realized what had happened. One of his own damn arrows had lodged in his side. Everything ached, which made sense because everything had been hit off a stone at least once on his tumble.

"Fuckin' shit," Daryl muttered as he leaned his head back and closed his eyes, trying to take a deep breath and swallow the pain so he could get up. He knew he had to, but just lying there felt so nice. If he stayed very still, the pain that throbbed through his entire body subsided for that brief second. It was as he closed his eyes and tried not to move that a thought struck him: he was going to die down here. Daryl hadn't moved yet to see if any of his bones were broken. If one of his bones were broken he knew there would be no way he could get out of here. The only way to get out was to climb up the steep hill he had fallen down. Even knowing his getting up was a matter of life and death, he still couldn't bring himself to get to his feet. It just seemed like so much effort, and he was so tired, and laying on his back looking up at the blue sky wasn't too bad. It was when he heard a moaning about a yard away and foot steps, that he managed to get the motivation to get back up.


	11. Missing in action

Through the shooting pain that seemed to radiate through his entire being, Daryl leapt to his feet as adrenaline kicked in. A mere few feet away from him, a walker was drunkenly staggering towards him, the thing moaning and groaning with it's hands extended towards him, lusting to dig into the fat, muscle and viscera that was all wrapped up as Daryl. All of Daryl's arrows were gone; they had scattered all about the hill as he had fallen. All except one, that is. The one that was pierced through the fatty tissue by his hip. He didn't have time to grimace, or think it over, he knew what he had to do as much as he didn't like it. Daryl reached down and wrapped his fist around the arrow, and as quickly as he could, yanked it out of his side. Like ripping a band aid off. He could feel blood start to trickle down his side, warm and sticky, from the now open wound. Thankfully, the crossbow had stayed slung around him throughout the entire ordeal, and he was able to pull the string back, place the arrow in and shoot the walker right in between the eyes. The walker, who appeared to once have been a bald, chubby business man, dropped to the ground in a loud thud. Daryl wobbled on his feet, trying to come to grips with the pain that wracked him from head to toe before taking a step towards the corpse to retrieve his bolt. He was walking though, and that he was thankful for. Besides being sore beyond anything he'd ever felt and the wound in his side, he figured he was mostly alright. Nothing seemed to be broken, anyway. Daryl had had sprains before, and he figured his left ankle might be sprained, and he probably had a few pulled muscles here and there, but he was in one piece and able to move.

Daryl's black work boot sunk into the mud, making a sloppy squishing sound as he knelt down beside the walker. He tried not to look at it, the thing who's toxic green eyes were staring up blankly at the blue sky overhead. He got his arrow back and turned around to look towards the steep hill, almost cliff, he had fallen from. It was nearly vertical, with rocks and twigs sticking out here and there. He could see the bright yellow and red from some of the feathers of his arrows scattered about like eggs on Easter. Daryl took a deep breath before limping towards it, what he saw as the challenge that would either make or break him.

_It's sink 'r swim now, boy,_ Merle said in a cold laugh. Daryl tried to ignore the echoing call of his brother as he placed a hand on one of the rocks and hoisted himself up. He almost fell backwards; the movement had been so fast it had made his head start to spin. He held onto the rock tightly, making his knuckled turn white and waited until the dizziness had passed and grabbed the next rock he could reach, this time picking up one of his rogue arrows. Daryl kept going; each time he moved, he'd have to take a rest of about a minute in order to make the world stop spinning so damn fast, pick up an arrow, repeat. After awhile Daryl dared a look over his shoulder, back down to the ravine below. Another walker had picked up Daryl's scent and was standing right below him, watching him hungrily. Daryl gulped. No room for error now, if there had been any before.

Dinner had passed, and though everyone's plates were empty, everyone still sat at the table rigidly. The sky was starting to darken, the more the bright blue of day faded the tenser everyone got. Carol, the kids and newcomers were all talking at the corner of the table in the lounge. Everyone else was sitting on the other end in silence. Everyone had noticed Daryl's absence, it was impossible not to notice a lack of Dixon. He had said he'd be back in a couple hours. A couple hours was now nearing on six and on top of it, the sun would go down soon. Harley sat beside Lori, chewing her thumbnail thoughtfully, trying desperately to think of reasons not to worry and coming up short.

"We gotta do something," Rick said finally. Everyone else at his end of the table nearly jumped as they were brought back to reality and snapped from their thoughts.

"It's gonna be dark soon, we can't risk it," Shane replied sternly as he rested his hands on the table.

"Yeah, I get it. Night time is more dangerous. But we've all done things a hell of a lot more risky, sometimes stupid, than go look for someone, who we actually have a good idea of where they are," Harley said. Shane narrowed his eyes at her, which she saw. Harley didn't care though, she let it roll off her back. Harley didn't hate Shane, he'd always been pleasant to her, but she definitely didn't care what he thought of her or her opinions. Especially when it came to Daryl.

Shane would be the death of them all, she was certain sometimes. Shane was eager to go with the safest bet to save his own skin, even if it meant losing some of his colleagues, which in the long run, meant less muscle, less brain, less power.

"We can't leave Daryl out there," Glenn piped up. "Can't say I love him, but…He's helped out a lot, you know?"

"Losing Daryl would definitely be losing one big resource, that's for sure," Dale said solemnly as he looked down at the floor. As much as he hated to admit it, the idea of losing Daryl was a bit sentimental to him, at this point. Like everyone, he had hated the Dixon brothers. The two had been mean, ignorant, and useless, that was all those two amounted to in the camp. They had started fights with nearly every person there. Then Merle was pulled out of the equation. At first, that had made Daryl worse. A lot of his outbursts had turned violent, rather than just words spewed from an ignorant hick. However, as more time went by without Merle, Daryl became tolerable. Then, he caved and actually started talking to everyone in the group, maybe not becoming friends, but at least being civil and sociable with the group. Daryl had been the one to look for Sophia the most and hardest, quietly earning respect from everyone. No, Dale couldn't say Daryl Dixon was his friend, but he had grown rather fond of him over the past few weeks and the idea of something bad happening to him broke Dale's, as well as everyone else's, heart.

"You hit the nail on the head. We gotta go look for him," Rick said and got his feet, along with everyone else who had been sitting at that end of the table.

"I ain't going. Walking in the woods tonight is a death trap," Shane spat, and crossed his arms over his chest, refusing to get up from his seat on a blue couch.

"No one asked you anyway," Glenn said matter-of-factly, a way that made Shane's blood boil though he didn't say or do anything to act on it.

"Alright Shane, if you want to stay here and hold down fort with the women and kids, that's fine," Rick said in a shrug as he, Glenn and T-Dog headed for the door. Lori stopped Rick and gave him a quick peck on the lips and asked him to be careful. Very careful.

"Wait, I'm coming too," Harley said as she walked over towards the three, who looked at her incredulously.

"Harley, I know you're worried, but you should stay here," Rick said. Harley raised a brow.

"I know you don't know from experience, since all I've done since we were at the camp, the cabin or here was cook, clean or menial stuff like that. But, Officer, I can take care of myself. How else do you think I got myself and Riley all the way across Atlanta and found the you all? Plus, I'm one hell of a shot. My Dad used to take me to the shooting range a lot when I was growing up, and I can't say I'm a dead eye, or anything like that, but I'm good," Harley said with her hands on her hips, her tone steady and confident. "Better than Glenn," She added jokingly when she realized how intensely she came off, and didn't want the mood to seem intimidating or that she was trying too hard. She really wanted to go out, be outside, leave the walls of the dorm for a bit. And, first and for most, find Daryl. Harley was a hands on type of girl, and she just the idea of sitting around waiting for the men to get back with Daryl while she twiddled her thumbs made her sick.

"Hey!" Glenn exclaimed, and playfully punched Harley's shoulder.

"You know what? What could an extra pair of eyes and hands hurt. I'll give you the pistol. You gotta listen, and don't shoot unless absolutely necessary or I say so. Got it?" Rick asked as the group, who had been joined by Lucien, walked out of the lounge and into the lobby, where Rick had stored some of the weapons behind the front desk.

"Got it," Harley confirmed as Rick placed the silver pistol in her hands.

Daryl finally got to the top of the hill about forty five minutes later. He was drenched with sweat, and he flopped down on the ground to collect himself once more. He took a few deep inhales of the chillier evening air. A breeze whistled through the trees and cooled the sweat that still shone on his skin. As if the wind had been the voice of God, Daryl got to his feet once more. Slowly, a bit shakily, but he did manage to get back up. His motorcycle wasn't too far away from the path, and once he got to that and got back to the dorm everything would be fine. Harley would be there to get him some dinner, maybe have a drink with him and then, God willing, tend his wounds. What would be the odds some college chick would have a nurse costume for Halloween lying around? Daryl wondered to himself in a smirk as he trudged down the dirt path, being careful not to step on any twigs that would create a snapping noise and bring the attention to any walkers that could be lurking near by.

He still felt like an eighteen wheeler had run him over, and maybe backed over him. But, he was out of that cove. He had managed to climb up over that near impossible, joke of a drop, and would soon be back to the campus. Food. Booze. Sleep. Those three ideas were all just too much to handle, in the best way.

They're all gonna be might fuckin' sad when you walk back through those doors, boy. Merle seethed in his head. When the sun started to set and you wasn't there, they were laughin'. You know what they was sayin', baby brotha? They was saying 'thank god the hillbilly done gone, one less mouth to feed'.

Daryl tried to block it out. He limped on, his left leg dragging a bit. He walked on the path for nearly five minutes, only saw one walker which he easily took out with his cross bow and saw Merle's motorcycle parked right where he left it. Like some kind of beacon, it sparkled in the last few rays of daylight.

Riley sat next to Miguel at the lounge table. The two of them, along with Carol, Carl and Rosa were playing Go fish or something. From the corner of her eye, Riley had seen Miguel eyeing her up and down and the way he did made her feel nervous. Though, much to her own surprise it wasn't the bad kind of nervous. She actually felt like she enjoyed the butterflies his big brown eyes seemed to give her. Every now and again she would look up into his bulge-y eyes, meet them and then coyly look away throughout the night, some unspoken way of flirting.

"Did you call the boss yet?" Rosa whispered in Miguel's ear, when Carol was talking to Riley. Rosa was a smart woman, and she had known to wait until the perfect moment to speak with Miguel so that no suspicion would arrive.

"Yeah," Miguel nodded. "He said he'll be here in two, maybe three nights. He has to get some things together at the cabin. He said to make sure the redneck and the dark haired girl are here when he gets here. He said until then we can do whatever we want. You know the drill," Miguel whispered back before he pulled away and gave Rosa a wink.

"Well, I think we're going to call it a night," Carol said as she, Carl and Riley all got up.

"It's not even eight yet," Riley said in a pout as she tugged at her brown sweatshirt, specifically tugging on some of the stray strings on the end.

"We have no clocks, so there's no way of knowing that," Carol replied as she placed a hand on Carl's back and directed him in front of her towards the door. "If you're still up when your sister and everyone gets back, I'm sure she wouldn't mind you coming down to spend time with everyone,"

"Goodnight, bella," Miguel said in a low tone that Carol didn't catch to Riley.

"G-goodnight," Riley stammered as she followed behind Carol and Carl.

"We've looked everywhere in this woods," Glenn groaned as he kicked a pile of dead leaves to illustrate his frustration. It was pitch black now, and everyone was uncomfortable being in the woods now. Rick was mentally sighing in relief that he had taken construction paper from the lobby of the dorm and stuck the paper on branches along the way, because he knew if he hadn't the four of them would definitely be lost.

"Harley, we've been out here for almost a whole hour. We have to go. There's no sign of him, I'm sorry," Rick said, truly being sympathetic. Harley looked over her shoulder, as if Daryl would be right there, coming out from behind a tree now that they were ready to give up.

"Yeah, it's okay," Harley said in a nod, though Rick knew better. "Can we come back tomorrow and look for him?"

"Of course," Rick said as the four of them all started to walk down the dark path. Then, there was a low moan. And another.

"Glenn, that joke isn't funny," Harley whispered as she took an extra long stride forward, to avoid stepping on a fallen tree branch that was covered in bright green moss.

"That… Wasn't me," Glenn said slowly, fearfully. All four of them spun around on their heels and a group of about ten walkers were heading towards them.

"Oh, shit!" T-dog whined as he lifted his rifle up and aimed at one, and pulled the trigger.

"Damn it T," Rick hissed. "You'd bet hope there aren't more lurking around here,"

"I think those few over there worry me more right now," T-dog snapped back.


	12. I can taste the fear

Daryl staggered to the steps of the dorm. It was completely dark out now, and he was having a hard time seeing. He had hit his head on his fall down the cliff a few times, and at times his vision would become blurry, others black would consume the corners of his sight. Because of this, he had driven as slow as he could on Merle's motorcycle, taking a break every now and again on the shoulder of the isolated high way to take deep breaths and regain the tiny bit of strength he had left. Eventually, had gotten back to the dorm and completely ignored the parking lot. Instead he had parked the motorcycle directly in front of the thick, concrete steps of the walk way, to save himself a few feet. Daryl grabbed onto the railing with both hands and dragged himself up each step. He was sorer now than he had been earlier, his muscles were tense and tight and each step was a challenge.

"Oh my God, Daryl!" Dale exclaimed as Daryl pulled himself through the door. Dale had been sitting at the front desk in the lobby, reading what must have been the last edition of the school's newspaper, luckily for Daryl. If Dale had been in the lounge instead of the lobby. Daryl's face was bruised and swollen, and his hair was matted to his face with dried blood. His tan wife-beater was stained with sweat and blood as well, the man looked like hell.

"Where's Harley?" Daryl asked as he reached out and steadied himself by placing his hands on the front desk. His voice was raspy, and a bit hard to understand.

"Oh," Dale sighed looking down at the paper where the smiling face of a retiring professor smiled up at him. "She's out looking for you,"

"She's what?"

"Her, Rick, T-Dog and Glenn went into the woods to look for you. Everyone was awful worried,"

"Son of a bitch!" Daryl exclaimed, or tried to. His voice cracked and he started coughing and gagging.

"I'm going to go get Shane and we're going to help you up the stairs, okay?"

"I can walk the damn stairs myself," Daryl snapped, though he wasn't so sure it was true. His vision was starting to get hazy again, as his body begged him for sleep, and he didn't think walking up four flights of stairs to get to his bedroom would be a good idea. At the same time though, he didn't like the idea of Shane and Dale holding onto him and walking him up the stairs like a toddler. Dale looked Daryl up and down before getting up out of his chair, a little plastic one, similar to the chair behind desks in classrooms.

"Here son, sit down," Dale said and gestured towards the chair. Daryl eyed it suspiciously for a second before limping around the desk, keeping his left hand flat on the desk to keep himself steady. When he finally got there, he plopped down into the seat and sighed. It felt good to sit. To not have to worry about driving, or walkers. Just sit, to take a deep breath and know he would get cleaned up soon, maybe get some water.

"How long have they been out looking fer me?" Daryl asked.

"About an hour and a half," Dale replied. "I'm going up to get Shane, hang tight, okay?" With that he turned the corner and headed up the stairs to retrieve Shane from his room, leaving Daryl alone. Daryl sighed and closed his eyes. There had been walkers in those woods; and he hoped, maybe even prayed a little that now since it was night that more walkers hadn't shown up and given them trouble.

"Well if you don't want us to shoot them, what do we do, Rick? There ain't a whole lot for weaponry around here," T-Dog hissed as the four of them slowly backed away from the group of ten or so walkers that were walking towards them, excited to finally get a meal.

"There's only those ones. That isn't too many, and they're slow moving. We can sprint to the RV, leaving them way behind, and get out of here and go back to the dorm," Rick whispered back, his eyes settled on one particular walker; what appeared to be a teenage girl. She looked similar to Riley and he hoped she didn't remind Harley of her as well.

Harley nodded at Rick's plan, and took another step back. As she did her back came into contact with something. She didn't have any time to think about what to do, and as instinct she threw herself on the ground, her back resting in a pile of dead leaves. The walker she had backed into snapped it's teeth down where her shoulder had been just a second ago.

"Guys…I think it's safe to say now it's okay to fire," Rick called out in a panic. He could see walkers coming towards them from all around. Some were behind them, some were coming from the thick of the woods. It didn't matter where they came from, all Rick new was things didn't look good.

Harley hadn't had time to think about where to go when she had ran into the walker. Though throwing herself on the ground normally wouldn't have been her first choice, she realized as she took her first shot at the nearest walker what a good idea it really was. Most walkers didn't see her, and tended to go for one of the other three, which gave her time to make the perfect headshot. She held her pistol in both of her hands and closed her right eye, to let the hammer of the gun align with the notch at the end before she pulled the trigger and watched the walker drop to the ground right in front of Rick. What walkers did see her, didn't matter. She was lying on her back, flat down on the ground, and it took walkers such a long time to get to that level that they were long blown away before they were any threat to Harley.

Glenn stood next to Rick. Sweat was pouring down his face and his heart was pounding. Glenn wasn't much of a shot, that was for sure. Glenn was a great scavenger, if he had been by himself he probably could have weaved his way through the crowd of walkers and gotten back to the Winnebago. Glenn had to take aim and fire at several zombies now, most of which hit bit a few bullets had gone whizzing off into the night, not connecting with any walker and that disheartened Glenn, he felt like he was the only one to be wasting even a single bullet.

"Come on! Let's go!" Rick shouted. The walkers were, by no means, gone. But, the four of them had cleaned out enough that Rick knew they could probably make a break for it. Harley jumped to her feet quicker than she even knew was possible. Despite the dizzy feeling jumping up so fast caused, she sprinted beside T-dog, behind Rick and Glenn. Trees flew by her vision so fast they looked like just gray blurs. Finally, they came to the end of the dirt path and could see the Winnebago, looking extra vibrantly white in the moonlight. Harley had never been a fan of RV's, but she had never seen a vehicle look as beautiful as that RV looked in that minute. It was as she saw it, that she realized how close the four of them had been to their demise's. There had been so many walkers, and not a lot of ammo. All four of them getting out of that unscathed really was 'good luck'.

Everyone piled into the RV and took a sigh of relief as they started to drive away from the woods. Harley looked out the window that was next to her and looked at the mass of gray trees and blackness fade away, and sighed, though not one of relief. She hadn't found Daryl. He was still out there, in those woods. What if those walkers found him, wherever he was?

Lucien walked out of the dorm, placed a cigarette in between his lips and lit it before climbing into the black van that he, Rose and Miguel had arrived in a couple of days prior. Lucien took a deep inhale off of his cigarette before expelling a mass of smoke into the air before reaching out and holding the button on the side of his walkie talkie.

"Boss? Boss? It's Lucien," Static. Static. Then…

"Whaddya want?" The boss grunted from the other end.

"I got some news for yah," Lucien said excitedly as he looked over his shoulder, just to double check that he was alone. "The redneck? You know how you said you wanted him here when you get here?"

"Yeah. Oh, yeah. I remember, him and that little bitch,"

"Yeah, well the redneck ain't going nowhere. He fell down a fucking cliff today looking for the little girl who's missing, and he's bed ridden for awhile,"

"Good. Last thing I need is that little prick getting in my way again," The boss said. Lucien could see him in his head right now, probably sitting on his couch, drinking a beer.

"Yessir. Thought you'd like to know," Lucien said.

"Yeah, I did. Thanks. Have a good night, Lucien. You three try to enjoy yourselves 'til I get there, okay?" The boss said in an evil laugh before putting down his walkie talkie for the night. Lucien smiled proudly to himself as he took another deep drag off of his cigarette. He loved the feeling of impressing someone, especially his boss.

After what felt like a century, at least to Harley, the Winnebago pulled into the parking lot and everyone got out and started walking towards the dorm. Even though she knew she wouldn't get sleep, she knew she'd be far too riddled with worries of Daryl, she was excited to at least lay in her comfy bed.

"Harley," Rick said and Harley turned to face him. Both T-Dog and Glenn passed them and headed up the steps to the dorm, almost running they were so eager to get food, water and sleep.

"Yeah?"

"I just wanted to let you know, back in the woods, you really beat my expectations. And, I wanted to say thank you. If you hadn't come with us tonight probably none of us would have made it back here," Rick said and gave her appreciative pat on the shoulder before walking beside her to head back in.

No one was in the lounge or lobby when they got back, which was strange but they assumed maybe everyone just went to bed. As soon as they got to the fourth floor, Andrea and Lori were rushing from the bathroom. Both of them had wet bath towels in their arms.

"Harley! Oh my God, thank god you're back!" Andrea exclaimed, a big smile spreading across her face.

"Well, thanks. Good to know I was missed," Harley replied.

"Well of course I missed you, but that's not what I meant," Andrea said. "Daryl's back. He fell down a cliff, and before you get too worried, he's okay. Pretty banged up, but he's been asking about you nonstop. He's in his room. Take these over to him too, okay?" Andrea asked and handed her the bundle of wet towels she and Lori had.

"H-he's back?" Harley stammered stupidly. Andrea gave her a smile and nodded. Harley didn't waste another second to turn the corner of the hall and rush to his room. The door was propped all the way open, and she could see Carol talking to him.

"You're every bit as good as them," She heard Carol say to Daryl before she leaned down to give him a kiss on the temple, which at first he flinched violently away from, almost breaking Harley's heart. He had looked so scared, so un-Daryl like.

"Oh, you're back," Carol said when she walked in the hallway and saw Harley standing there.

"Yeah," Harley said. There was an awkward silence between the two, and just as Harley was about to walk past Carol and go into Daryl's room, Carol spoke.

"You got a good man in there, Harley," Carol said, her voice was tense and almost cold. "Appreciate him," She added as she walked away. She hated feeling this way towards Harley; Harley who had babysat Sophia without any hesitation, Harley who had held her as she cried when Sophia went missing, Harley who supported her through her husbands abuse and death. Carol couldn't tame it though, her jealousy of Harley was there, and didn't appear to want to go away anytime soon.

Harley watched Carol walk around the corner. She looked down at herself and saw there was blood and dirt on her light blue flannel shirt, and with one hand, the other hand holding the towels, unbuttoned it and shrugged it off so she was left in a black tank top. She was sure blood and dirt wouldn't upset Daryl, but she didn't want him to think anything had happened to her.

Harley took a deep breath and walked into the doorframe of his room. He was lying on his side, so that his back was to her, He had a big, white bandage on the side of his head and a quilt wrapped around him.

"Listen, I know y'all wanna help me 'r something, but will ya just leave me tha fuck alone?" Daryl asked when he heard footsteps stop at his doorway.

"Hey, I didn't want to come visit you, I was just told to bring the towels," Harley said, a little smile playing on her lips. Daryl sat up when he heard her voice, cringing as he did so because everything was so achingly sore. Harley crossed the threshold of his room, and kicked the brick from the door so that it shut and they could have privacy.

"Hi," Harley whispered as she sat down on the side of his bed.

"Hi," Daryl whispered back.

"You worried the hell out of me, you know?" Harley said.

"Yeah," Daryl mumbled as he looked down. Harley reached over and took his hand in hers.

"I'm glad you're back…" She said and leaned over and placed a quick kiss on his lips, making the Merle telling him off in his head, silence.


	13. Mistakes

**Author's note: Hey everyone! I am so sorry I haven't updated in so long. Lack of inspiration, and so many things to do doesn't tend to work, unfortunately. But, even though I haven't updated in so long, I've been still been getting story and author alerts, and I wanted to say thanks, I really appreciate them! Anyway, without further adieu, here's chapter 13. Enjoy!**

Harley reached out and with her slim fingers, her mother had always called them "pianist hands", and pushed some stray brown hair from Daryl's forehead. Daryl wanted to say something, to tell her she'd been stupid to go into the woods when it was getting dark to look for him, for one. More than anything though, he wanted to pull her to him and feel her warmth against him. Despite what he wanted, he couldn't. His body was just battered to damn bad to even move, let alone cuddle.

"You're something else," Harley mused as she placed her hand back down on the bed by her crossed legs.

"Huh?" Daryl tilted his head to the side, he was legitimately confused. He studied her for a second, trying to get a clue about what she meant, but her face, as always, didn't share the secret.

"I heard what happened. Falling down a cliff, the walkers, and somehow still making it back here on your own. You're something else," Harley said as she looked down at him. He was bruised, and there were many band aids of all different shapes and sizes covering him in an almost cheetah print.

"It's not like I wanted tah', but I didn't wanna die neither," Daryl replied in a thoughtless shrug, that sent another surge of searing pain through him.

"I know," Harley said. Her tone was gentle, soothing. She had a low voice, it was sexy, but always calming as well. "But if it were me instead of you-"

"It never woulda been," Daryl interjected sternly.

"Fine. But, I'm saying had it been me, I probably would have just cowered at the bottom of that cliff and not gotten back up,"

"Well, yer a woman," Daryl said flatly. Harley repressed a snicker; had that come from anyone else she would have been offended, but by this point she had gotten to know Daryl well enough to know he hadn't meant it as insult, it was just…Well, Daryl being Daryl.

"Alright, well, no one else in this group would have been as tough as you," Harley said and offered him a smile. He only rolled his eyes and looked down at his hands. There was still blood, his own, under his nails. He wanted to believe she was right, that he was really viewed as 'tough', but he didn't believe her. Daryl would never consider himself tough. No, if anything he saw himself as a "pansy", as Merle had told him he was countless times.

"Well, I'm going to let you rest for awhile. I'll come check up on you in the morning, alright?" Harley said as she got to her feet.

"Harl," Daryl called out when she had gotten to the door. Daryl had waited until the last possible minute to stop her, she had already started to turn the door handle. "Will you stay?" He asked, his voice was weak as he asked. He almost sickened himself when he heard himself, and the name: "pansy boy" rang out through his head.

"Of course I will," Harley replied as she turned back to him, and turned the kerosene lantern down that was on the desk beside his bed, to prevent the licks of flame from getting too strong. Daryl tried to hitch over to make room for her on the bed, but the pain was too much. Harley could see it on his face, and offered him a comforting smile as she sat on the floor beside him.

"Don't move, I never minded sleeping on the floor anyway," She said. Daryl opened his mouth to protest when she reached up and placed a finger to his thin lips, some of the stubble on his chin and upper lip tickling her finger. "Daryl, don't start with me. If I was really torn up about not sleeping on a bed, I'd be in my own room," Harley said as she laid back down on the floor, using her left arm as a pillow.

"Hey Harl," Daryl said after a long silence. He had spoken softly, and had half expected Harley to already be asleep and not answer. It was just he couldn't fall asleep himself, if he laid on his back, his ribs throbbed, on his side his arm and ribs, on his stomach his legs would burn from stretched muscles and bruises, nothing was comfortable. It was impossible.

"Yeah, Daryl?" Harley answered, her voice cracking a little, making it obvious to him that she had been right on the rim of slumber.

"Will you tell me the story of when you turned twenty one again?" He asked as he looked up at the plain white ceiling. From the floor, he heard Harley chuckle a little.

"Why do you like that story so much? It's fuckin' embarrassing," Harley said.

"That's why I like it," Daryl said in an smirk, which Harley could hear in his voice as he spoke.

"Oh, you're an asshole," She laughed. "If you weren't hurt there's no way I'd tell you this story again,"

"Yeah, you would," Daryl said and let his hand dangle over the side of the bed, silently begging for Harley's fingers to tangle with his, which she obliged to before clearing her throat and telling the hazy story of too many shots and a mechanical bull.

The next morning Harley woke up with a jolt. She'd had a dream, of what she couldn't remember. It had scared her though, whatever it had been because even as she looked up at the white ceiling of the room, or the odd knick knacks the previous resident had had, her heart still pounded. Her fingers were still intertwined with Daryl's, and as she got to her feet she gingerly pulled her hand from his, as to not disturb him. She realized trying to disturb him was in vain when she stood up and looked down upon him and his light blue eyes were already on her.

"Good morning, sunshine," Daryl said sarcastically. He felt even worse this morning than he had the day before. It was like all the pain had settled into his bones and skin. Or maybe he'd simply had more time to think about the wounds, when he really hadn't had that option when he was trying to get back to the campus the night before.

"Goodmorning," Harley beamed as she rolled her shoulders. She wouldn't admit it to Daryl, but her back and shoulders definitely ached after laying on the hard wood floor all night. Nothing major, just some small aches. The dull pain was worth being able to be by Daryl's side, she figured. "How yah feelin'?"

"Like shit," Daryl replied.

"You look like shit," Harley nodded in agreement. It was only when a frown formed on Daryl's face that she realized how insulting it had sounded. Trying not to laugh, she added. "I mean in a sickly way. Of course, you look handsome as ever,"

"God, yer so fuckin' weird," Daryl sighed as he rolled his eyes, though the corners of his lips started to rise, just the tiniest bit.

"You like it," Harley replied in a shrug as she started to walk around the bed and go to the door.

"Where tha fuck are you goin'?" Daryl asked, pushing the yellow quilt off of himself a bit, exposing his bare chest. Harley looked at it, and wished he wasn't hurt so bad. If there was one thing she wanted, it was to be touching him, feeling him, biting him…

"I'm going to go check on Riley, and get you some food," Harley said as she opened the big wooden door and took a step into the hall before adding, sarcastically: "Is that alright with you, Captain?"

"Yah might have tah give up some treasure tonight, though," Daryl called after her in a wink as she closed the door, snickering to herself. As she walked down the hall way, it seemed so dead. The windows at the end of the hall showed a dull, dismal, overcast day. The grayness outside, paired with the plain hallway, off white ceilings and wall and a plain, dirty blue rug, sent a pang of sadness through her. It was in that moment that she realized she hadn't seen something beautiful in a long time. The RV was cozy, the camp had been okay, the cabin had a home-like feel to it, but none of them were beautiful. As she lingered by the big bay window that looked over a hill that went down and led to a student parking lot and then into what had once been the town square, Harley thought about sitting on her Grandma's porch before the epidemic had hit. It had been beautiful that day. The sun had started to go down and had left the sky bright red with streaks of purple fused in. Grandma's lawn had been bright green and recently mowed, so recently that the smell of grass was still present. Even Grandma had looked beautiful as she sat in her rocking chair, knitting a tiny pink baby's sweater, as one of her friend's granddaughters were due soon. She had had her gray-white hair pulled into a bun at the back of her head, and in the warm lighting her wrinkles, though obviously visible, didn't seem to matter. She almost looked young as Harley had watched her and listened to recount stories from the 'good old days'. Maybe she'd seen a lot of beautiful things since then, she thought, but maybe none of them had mattered anymore. Too many ugly, horrific things were happening right beside the beauty to make it count. The only things beautiful she could think of were the people in her camp, almost all of them were great people and she was glad she had met them; if she hadn't, it would have just been her and Riley, and they both would have ended up goners. Though she wished none of them had to be in the situation, of course, she thought the friendships and relationships that had been formed were one of the only things that kept anyone sane at all.

Harley shuddered, making herself snap out of it and turned back around and headed to the first door on her left, directly across the hall from her own, Riley's room. The door was open, just a tiny bit. Harley lightly knocked on the door, not wanting to wake her if she was still asleep (which, Harley figured, she still was. That girl could sleep like nothing else). There was no answer, and so Harley pushed the door open, and instantly wished she hadn't.

As she had expected, Riley was in her bed, alright. What Harley hadn't counted on was that Miguel was in the bed with her. Both were nude; Miguel had Riley pinned against the wall, with her breast in his hand.

"WHAT THE FUCK!" Harley shouted. Harley wasn't one for shouting, or really any loud noises, she was a generally quiet, peaceful person, and because of that Riley was scared all the more. Riley's skin had been flushed with the pleasure and attention from Miguel, but she quickly felt herself drain of color when she saw Harley seething in the doorway.

"Yo, don't you got no respect? Give us some privacy here!" Miguel said to Harley and flicked his wrist to the door.

"Oh, privacy is the last fuckin' thing you're going to get," Harley said. "Now, get off my sister, and get out of the room," She said. A couple of doors from across the hall and next door squeaked open, which was no surprise seeing as Harley's initial reaction had been a bit loud.

"Hey, I-" Miguel started to say.

"Put your pants on, and leave." Harley said. Her voice was no longer high or shrill, now it was down to it's normal tone; a bit low, but dangerous, Riley felt.

"You're sister ain't a kid no more! You can't just walk in like that!" Miguel said angrily as he pulled his jeans up and zipped them. Harley didn't say anything. She had nothing to say to him.

"Is everything okay?" Rick asked from behind Harley. She looked over her shoulder at him and offered him a weak smile.

"Nothing I can't handle, thanks," She replied. Miguel passed her to go out into the hall with Rick.

"Stupid bitch…I can't wait until the boss gets here to fucking fry your ass," Miguel grumbled under his breath as he walked back to the room he, Rosa and Lucien were now sharing. Harley kicked the door shut with her foot and walked into the room. A lot of things from the previous owner had been left here; there was still a TV mounted on the wall so that it could be seen from both bunks, a lot of clothes, comics, DVD's and dirty laundry strewn away into the closed by the head of the bunks.

"You're not Mom, don't even start," Riley said as she pulled a yellow T-shirt over her head.

"You wanted that?" Harley asked, gesturing towards the door Miguel had just exited with her thumb.

"I guess," She shrugged.

"Riley, that was your first time, you shouldn't have to say 'I guess' about the person you decide to partner up with,"

"He didn't actually…We didn't actually… Get to the whole 'it' part. You kind of came in right before," Riley admitted sheepishly as she pulled her denim shorts over he pale ankles.

"May I ask why you decided to let this strange man whom we just met day before yesterday in your room?"

"I, uh, I heard you and Daryl," Riley stammered as Harley's cheeks turned a bright crimson color. "And it made me realize I don't want to die a virgin, or die alone, you know?"

"Oh, Riles. You're not going to die anytime soon, not while I'm on watch. So, you better cut doing stupid shit out like that, because it's not good. What if he had an STD? You think the end of times sucks now, imagine it with sores down-"

"Okay! Okay!" Riley laughed. "I get it. We run into different groups and other survivors all the time, don't we?" Harley nodded. "Maybe sometime I'll find someone sometime. D'you think it's possible?"

"Well, I'm seeing a huge redneck who carries his crossbow like it's a limb. I think anything's possible," Harley replied, making Riley giggle. "I gotta go get Daryl some food, if you want to come get some with me," Harley said as she sat up from the edge of the bed.

"You're not mad at me?" Riley asked, her mouth agape in shock.

"No. I think it was stupid, and if you pull something like that again I'll be mad, but not right now, no." Harley answered. Riley didn't say anything back, but simply smiled as she got up and followed her sister down to the kitchen, where they made some breakfast together.

"Hey, what was all the hollerin' about?" Daryl asked when Harley finally came back into his bedroom, with a plate of scrambled eggs and a glass of orange juice with her. Harley set his food down on the small bureau that was being used as a night stand and sat on the bed beside him.

"You know those guys who just showed up here one night?" Daryl nodded. "Well, one of them was in her bed with her, and yeah… They didn't actually do the deed, but it was pretty close," Harley said.

"She almost fucked a Messican?" Daryl asked, awestruck.

"Yeah," Harley replied in a laugh.

"Good God, you must have been a bad influence on the girl," Daryl said as he placed the plate of eggs on his lap and started to shovel them into his mouth. It'd felt like forever since he'd last eaten. Harley sat silently beside him as he ate, knowing that saying anything would only interrupt him.

"So, wench," Daryl said as he put his empty plate on the bureau again. "Where's tha treasure?"

"Daryl," Harley sighed. "We can't. You just fell off a cliff, I don't want to hurt you."

"You can figure out a way," Daryl assured her in a sly smile, his blue eyes twinkling mischievously. Harley smirked too, she had. She reached over and ripped the quilt away from him and then crawled to space in between his legs, gently nudging them apart so she could fit and successfully remove his gray jeans.

"See, I told you," Daryl said in a breathy, contented sigh as he slid his jeans and his boxers off and let them tumble off the bed and land in a pile by the bedpost. Harley looked up, meeting his eyes and gave his a grin before lowering her head and running her tongue slowly over the tip of him before taking more of him into her mouth.

Behind the dorm, a big teal Ford pick up truck pulled in. There was nothing around, just trees and what was once a walk way for students, was now cracked and overgrown with weeds. Lucien threw out his cigarette and with Rosa and Miguel by his side, they went and walked over to the drivers side door.

"Didn't think you were going to make it, boss," Lucien grinned as he pulled open the door for his boss who took a step out and stretched his thick, meaty arms out.

"O' course I was gon' make it," The boss said in an eye roll as he pulled out a smoke and placed it between his chapped lips. "Are they both here?"

"Yes," Rosa said in a vigorous nod.

"Good," The boss said in a cackle as he pulled a green lighter up to his cigarette and ignited the end before taking a deep inhale.


	14. Taken

**Author's note: Hey guys! Once again sorry for the lack of updates. It's finals week and I've been crazy busy. But after this coming week, I have a month off. So expect a lot of awesome things. Anyway, I'm not sure how I feel about this chapter. Meeehe. **

**Please review! :)**

Lucien watched as his boss threw his cigarette on the ground. The butt landed on the asphalt and made a small firework of orange embers in the blackness of the night. Now that civilization was gone things got real dark now; there were no lights from houses, stores, or streetlights. No, all of the city lights were gone that took away the harshness of what a real night was. Lucien had thought he'd seen darkness before, he learned otherwise when the world went to shit.

"So, what's the plan?" Lucien asked, knowing it was the question that was also on Miguel (who was still a red in the face from his encounter with the Scott sisters earlier that day) and Rosa's minds. As he knew they would, both Rosa and Miguel seemed to perk up when he asked the question. The three of them had known since they arrived at the dorm that the boss would show up and wreak his revenge in some way, but how the boss had never told them. The boss snickered as he reached out a steel-toed boot and crushed the cigarette butt out, more or less for the feeling of killing something, even if it was inanimate.

"Well, I plan on waltzin' in there with you three keeping back the troops with these," He said as he turned on his heel and leaned into truck and pulled out a big army duffle bag, which when he unzipped revealed three sawed off guns. "I'll go find the hick and the bitch, an' I'll punch him square in the nuts, kiss her tender and yell 'Bill's back in town!'"

Daryl was laid back in his bed, the quilt was still thrown off of him and was half hanging off the bed so that it brushed the floor with it's frayed edges. His jeans and boxers were still off as well, thrown on the floor by Harley. She had left, gone downstairs to get him some food. As much as he hated her to be gone, it gave him some time to reflect. Daryl liked being alone; alone was what he was used to.

Daryl closed his eyes and leaned his head back on the feather pillow, which still smelled like Harley. He remembered that first night he laid down his sleeping bag beside her, after fighting his hammering heart and negative thoughts, he had pulled her close and some long, wavy locks of her dark hair had brushed his face and tickled his nose. That had been the first time he'd smelled her hair; even without that girly bullshit he was sure she used to use, she smelled good. Harley had two smells: the first was the smell of her perfume mixed with cigarettes, a sexy, mysterious and dangerous scent that had attracted him to her as much as it had scared him away. The other was the smell that clung to his pillow now, the way her hair had smelled that night. It was clean, gentle and had a touch of something floral to it; like the features of her face, the smell was delicate and feminine. It was thinking of her smell that led Daryl imaging of her under him, with her hot breath hitting the side of his neck and ear, sending shivers down his spine as if they were in the Antarctic, and her trimmed nails digging into his shoulder blades, urging him to go harder on her, which he would give her without any questions…

Well, that wouldn't be happening anytime soon, Daryl remembered with a feeling of sorrow in his loins. Hell, even trying to sit up was a challenge. Dixon's were fast healers though, and Daryl convinced himself he would be up on his feet within a couple days. Hell, he was only bruised and cut after all; he'd checked himself and had Harley check him for broken bones and besides swelling from sprains, nothing felt abnormal to either of them.

"Fuckin' sitting in bed over bruises," Daryl scoffed as he extended his arm out as far as it could go until his fingers met with the quilt and he could pull it back over himself. Daryl set a plan up in his head: he would sleep tonight and rest, and then tomorrow he would get up and get his own food, do whatever he wanted to.

Harley sat down in the lounge with everyone else, looking down at her half empty plate of macaroni and cheese. It was the third night in a row they'd had macaroni and cheese, not that she was complaining; food was food, but still. The idea of breaking into the old cafeteria was looking better and better.

"How's Daryl doing?" Carol asked as scraped her fork across her plate to get more noodles.

"Well, this morning he was cussing up a storm and saying the usual Dixon type things, so I think he's on the mend," Harley replied and gave Carol a smile.

"That's great!" Andrea said from beside Harley.

Harley had been sitting with her back to the lounge door, so when she hear it squeak open and slam closed, she didn't think much of it. She had assumed it was Lucien, Miguel and Rosa finally deciding to come join them and get food. It was when everyone across the table from her eyes widened and Rick jumped to his feet that Harley knew something was very wrong. Harley swallowed the last bite of her food and chanced a look over her shoulder and her jaw instantly dropped and she felt fear seize her.

At the entrance to the lounge, Rosa, Miguel and Lucien all stood holding sawed off guns, aiming them at everyone at the long dining room table. Behind them, Bill stood with a big smile across his broad features. Remembering the night before they left the cabin flashed into Harley's memory. Having him pin her against the wall, and him telling her she had to do this or else her sister, her responsibility, would be kicked out and would have no where to go. It was like it had all been a nightmare; she'd thought about a lot since they'd been at the dorm, though less and less. She thought Bill's torment had been over.

"Lawman, you sit the fuck down," Lucien roared at Rick, who had gotten to his feet. Rick gulped hard and nodded as he slowly lowered himself back down to his seat, where Lori reassuringly patted his knee, even though she looked absolutely petrified as well. Bill gave a happy sigh as he walked in between Lucien and Miguel so he would get closer to Harley. Once he got close to her he ran his thick fingers through her reddish brown hair and smiled. Harley's hair was smooth as silk and shiny, and he loved the feeling of it against him.

"What the hell is going on?" Andrea asked as she glared up at Bill as he stroked Harley's hair affectionately, who had turned her face away from him.

"You haven't caught on yet?" Bill asked and started to laugh hysterically. "Miguel, Lucien and Rosa over here work fer me. Not too long after y'all left, these three showed up at my cabin just like you had. I was pretty pissy, I had a swollen nose and bruised ribs because of that fucking hillbilly. I let them stay for a week or two, got to know them, and then told them if they wanted to stay in my cabin with me, they'd have to do me a little favor. Bet you can't guess what it was?" Bill asked in a teasing tone as he started to giggle again.

"You made them come look for us," Carol said quietly as she turned her gaze down to the floor. Carol was already on edge from everything that had happened to her, well… Ever. The last thing the woman needed was a gun being pointed at her.

"Sure did," Bill nodded. "Now, I don't want to hurt none of y'all. So, as long as y'all do as I say you won't get shot, alright?" Bill asked. No one moved or said anything. "Here's what's going to happen: I'm going to go upstairs and pay that white trash piece of shit a visit, and then I'm going to leave with Harley in tow, got it?"

"What!" Harley yelped. "There isn't any fucking way I'm going anywhere with you!"

"Sorry sweetheart, I think I've got the upper hand now," He said in a wink as he reached over the back of her chair and grabbed a hold of her wrist to tug her up to her feet. "Why don't you come say goodbye to Daryl with me, huh?"

"Look Bill, things got bad at your cabin, it's true. But, there's a better way than-" Rick started to say, with everyone nodding vigorously around him.

"Shut the fuck up!" Bill shouted and for emphasis, Lucien shot his gun at a wall. The noise alone had everyone jump nearly a foot, and caused a scream from Carol and Andrea. "Now come on, darlin'. Let's say goodbye to that boy of yers," He said as he tightened his grip on Harley's wrist and started to drag her out of the lounge, leaving Riley sobbing and the rest of the group staring helplessly after her.

"Wait out here, sweet thing. Don't even think of runnin'," Bill said in a wink as he walked in through Daryl's door. Daryl had been on the verge of falling asleep, when he saw that familiar, stout figure walk through his door. At first he thought he'd been dreaming. It had been a long time ago that he and the group had been at the cabin and seen Bill, but no matter how many times he blinked to try and get rid of the image of Bill, it didn't go away.

"Well, hello there," Bill said in a sneer as he stood at the foot of Daryl's bed.

"What the fuck are you doing here?" Daryl snarled.

"Whoa there, testy, testy," Bill said in a laugh. "I'm just coming back and taking what's mine," He replied as he wrapped his hands around bed post and leaned forward a bit. He was wearing all dark clothing and the way he had almost perched himself at the foot of Daryl's bed made Daryl think of a gargoyle.

"What are you talkin' about?" Daryl asked as he tried to sit up all the way, so he could kick his legs off of the side of the bed and get up. He was able to ignore the pain and sit up, but by the time he actually had succeeded in doing so he was light headed.

"I'm taking Harley back with me-"

"What the fuck! No you ain't," Daryl yelled.

"Shh, don't want to cause a raucous, son," Bill said. "Harley!" He shouted, and she walked slowly through the door. Daryl met her eyes and he could see the fear in them. Never in his life had he hated himself so much; he couldn't even get up to try and protect his woman. Well, fucked if he wasn't going to try, he thought. Daryl swung his legs over the edge of the bed and got to his feet, his walking was wobbly but he made it to Bill who had watched his struggle with glee.

Harley knew it wasn't possible, but deep down she had hoped somehow Daryl could have been alright, he could have somehow saved the day, but he was too weak. Harley watched as he tried to punch Bill, who avoided his hit and in turn, struck him down. Daryl hit the wooden floor with a sickening thud. Harley started to run over to him, to help him get back up or just tell him it was okay, but Bill put his hand out and stopped her.

"Also, this ones just to even the score, you understand," Bill said as he lifted his leg up and brought it down on Daryl, just as Daryl had done to him before they left the cabin. Daryl let out a loud yell and pressed his forehead hard onto the hard wood floor to hide his pained face from Bill and Harley.

"We're going now," Bill then said firmly. On her way out the door Harley took one last look into the room, Daryl was still on he floor but he was looking up at the back of Bill's head with venom in his eyes. He was layed out on his stomach and some blood was rolling, bright red, from his nose down over his lips, which were drawn back in a rage induced growl. His eyes then made their way to Harley's, and despite the seemingly hopeless situation, his eyes had given her some kind of hope. She could tell that as soon as he was better, there wasn't anyway she would be stuck with Bill for long.

Bill led Harley back into the lounge where the scene hadn't changed at all. Everyone from the group was still sitting around the table, their half eaten plates of food still in front of them, all of them looking pale and uncomfortable, some looking down at their feet to avoid the situation in front of them.

"C'mon, we're getting out of here," Bill barked out to Rosa, Miguel and Lucien, who all nodded and started backing their way out of the lounge. Harley looked at Riley who had been staring at her. Tears were streaming down Riley's freckled cheeks and the girl just looked so hopeless, it broke Harley's heart anew.

"I'll be back," Harley mouthed before being dragged out of sight by Bill.


	15. Hopeless and defeated

**Hey guys, sorry for those of you who got a couple notifications or read a previous posting of this chapter. For some reason, it kept uploading a copy of a chapter from my Boondock Saints story. Even after I deleted the document and re-uploaded the right file, it still came up as that chapter. Anyway, without further ado, here is chapter 15! And as always, please, please, please review! :)**

The cabin hadn't changed a bit, Harley thought as Bill's teal ford pulled into the cabin. Harley felt her stomach sink even more. It was like reliving a bad nightmare. She sat in between Lucien and Bill in the cab of the truck while Miguel and Rosa sat in the bed, their backs pressed against the back windshield and their guns in hand.

"Home again, sweet heart," Bill said and nudged Harley with his elbow. She didn't reply, only looked down. How was it only a night ago she was out with the guys, fighting off walkers and looking for Daryl, essentially acting like a total badass, and now she felt weak. For the first time in a long, long time Harley Scott felt completely and totally defeated. Riley wasn't by her side to give her a reason to fight, Daryl wasn't there to help her, and no one from the group was there to tell her she was tough and could take Bill and Lucien on. No, Harley was alone. Even though she was in a tiny truck with four other people, she felt completely alone.

Bill pulled up close to the cabin's front porch and turned off the truck. He got out of the truck and reached back in to grab Harley, roughly gripping onto her upper arm and yanking her to him. Harley didn't make a sound, or protest in any way. Bill had people on his side now; they had guns, and they could hurt her. Or worse yet, they could leave her somewhere to get torn apart by walkers.

"Listen, Rex and Tommy are in there. I want you to be in your best behavior around the boys, ya hear?" Bill whispered harshly into Harley's ear. She nodded her head slowly as Bill pulled her beside him as he walked into the cabin. Both Rex and Tommy stood in the kitchen, their backs to the counter so that they faced the door, as if they had been waiting for Bill the whole time. Just like when Harley had been staying in the cabin before, both boys looked completely deadpan. Totally void of any emotions or thoughts, they seemed like robots made and programmed by Bill.

"Hey Dad, welcome back," Rex, the older son, said as Bill walked through the door and finally released Harley. Though the boy meant to sound happy to see his father again, Harley could tell he wasn't. He probably hated the old man as much as she did. Though Harley had never seen Bill be abusive to either son, she had seen tensions between them, and sharp words from Bill that surely hurt them. Harley reached up and gingerly touched the part of her arm where he had been holding onto her so tightly. It stung to her gentle fingers, and she could tell by the next morning she would have a good bruise that went around almost all the way around her arm.

"Thanks," Bill said to Rex as he walked across the kitchen and stood in between the two boys. There was no denying they were all related; all three had the same face. Same rugged features, though Bill's once handsome face had become marred with age and poor care of himself. Rosa, Miguel and Lucien all came into the cabin then. Lucien kicked the door shut with his big, black combat boot so hard that the slamming sound almost made Harley jump out of her skin. None of the three passed Harley, and she knew why. They all stayed between her and the door in case she made a run for it, which Harley admitted to herself she would have done, had there not been walkers all around. "Now boys, what'd I tell you to say to Miss Harley when she got here?"

"Glad you're back, Mom," Both boys said in unison. Harley felt color drain from her face as a cold tremor seized her and her jaw dropped._ Mom_.

"He didn't break nothing," Shane said as he pulled back from Daryl, who was glowering up at him from the bed. Daryl had insisted as Rick and Dale lifted him up and helped him walk back to his bed that nothing was broken, but no one believed him and good ol' Officer Shane Walsh had taken it upon himself to grope Daryl up and down his sides to make sure no ribs had been fractured when Bill had stomped down on him.

"Well no shit, I told yah that," Daryl replied in an eye roll. Rick and Dale stood behind Shane by Daryl's beside and they all looked down solemnly at Daryl, and merely nodded, none of them thinking of any words to say to him.

"Daryl, I'm so sorry, we'll get her back," Lori said from the doorframe where she and Andrea stood. Lori knew Rick well enough to know he could give bad news just fine as a cop, but comforting people was a whole different story entirely. So, to avoid the awkward silence that she was sure would occur, she spoke up. Daryl turned and looked at her. Blood from when Bill had punched him in the face had dried and was now a deep maroon color, making a trail from his right nostril down to his upper lip. Daryl's eyes were still narrowed and Lori wasn't sure if she regretted trying to talk to him or not. There was something almost animalistic about the look in his light blue eyes, which looking back could almost be viewed as comical since he was tucked into a bright yellow, rather feminine bedding.

"No shit we're gonna get her back," Daryl snapped. "There ain't no fucking way I'm letting that creep keep her. No fuckin' way,"

"We know, Daryl. We'll find her. We'll go check the cabin in the morning," Dale said soothingly as he took a step towards the bed.

"Tomorrow? _Tomorrow_? What the fuck is wrong with y'all? Harley against all four of those stupid bastards? No way, we're going out tonight," Daryl said and sat up, wincing and taking it slow. Everyone around the bed watched him with pity, and then turned their gazes to one another.

"Honestly Daryl, I don't think I can remember how to get there in the dark," Rick said quietly. "Us getting lost wouldn't help her much either,"

"Fuck y'all!" Daryl hollered as his face started to turn a light red. "I'll be damned if I leave her with him. I can't just sit here, waiting 'til morning to go find her. He could fuckin' rape 'er or kill her before then." Daryl added. Everyone's blood ran cold at the idea. It was something everyone had known the possibility of, but hearing it out loud had just made the idea all the more real. Harley was intelligent, but she could also be a bit sassy, which wasn't good when Lucien especially had seemed a little trigger happy…

"Daryl," Rick said, this time in a stern, serious way. "None of us will be able to find the cabin in the dark. We'll go as soon as the sun rises in the morning, alright? Now, lay down and get some rest. Andrea will bring you up some more pain killers in a little bit," Daryl didn't say anything. He simply stayed laying down on his back in bed, looking up at everyone around him with hate in his eyes. Rick felt bad for him, he really did. He knew the feeling of being torn away from someone you cared about; hell, he'd gone through hell and high water to be reunited with Lori and Carl.

"Bring 'em up now," Daryl finally said once nearly everyone was out of the room. Dale, who had been the only one still in the room turned. "And some whiskey,"

"What do you want it mixed with?" Dale asked as he tugged down on his plain white, button up shirt.

"No mixer. I don't need it." Daryl replied. Dale simply nodded his hat clad head and started to walk away. "Thanks, old man," Daryl called out before Dale was out of ear shot, making Dale smile to himself as he walked away.

Riley laid on her bed in a fetal position with her face hidden away behind her arms as Carol sat beside her, stroking her curled and frizzy red hair.

"I-I don't know what to do," Riley sobbed. "Harley took care of me,"

"I know," Carol cooed as she gently touched the side of Riley's pale face with her thumb. As bad as it was, it felt good to Carol to be giving someone this kind of attention. It made the aching pain of Sophia's absence a little dulled. Despite herself, Carol was sure Sophia was long gone. No one in the group had found anything when they had looked for her, not even Daryl who was an expert tracker could find a sign of the little girl. It was because of this belief of Carol's that she didn't mind so much that everyone was looking for Harley instead tomorrow. They all knew Harley was still out there. The same couldn't be said about her daughter.

"And, I let Miguel touch me… If only I'd known," Riley wailed as a new surge of tears started to flood down her face, running over the bridge of her nose and onto the sheet.

"Riley, you're young… You didn't know… You just wanted to experience something that is so hard to come by in this world now," Carol said, and Riley started to settle down.

"When we go look for Harley tomorrow, I want to be there. I need to help look for her." Riley said, almost in a whisper, as she lowered her arms to reveal her tear stained face.

"Sweetie, you shouldn't… It's dangerous out there,"

"I fucking know it's dangerous!" Riley said shrilly as she sat back up again. Riley's tone had startled Carol, and she had stopped touching Riley's face and hair and jumped away from the teen a little. "I'm fifteen. I'm almost an adult. I'm going,"

After an awkward dinner had been shared at the cabin, Harley had been 'allowed' to go sit on the porch. There were chairs on the porch now, unlike when the group had been staying there before. She sat in one of the white plastic chairs and promptly buried her head in her hands. She was screwed; Harley hadn't been able to think of one way to escape, it was near impossible. Bill always had the keys to the truck on him and one of the four were always around.

The door to the porch slid open with a little shrieking sound. Harley jumped in her seat a little and looked behind her to see Bill stepping out on the porch with her. He was dressed in blue jeans, a green button up over shirt that let some of his black and grey chest hairs peek out the top, and a neon orange cap.

"How you doin'?" He asked as he plopped down in the chair next to her.

"Been better," Harley replied dully. Daryl and Harley had had their very first kiss on this porch. Harley remembered, and almost laughed as she remembered when she had pulled away from him and called him a 'hick' which he had returned with 'Yankee'.

"I know it's hard now. But, you'll realize soon this is for the better. I've got a good plan here," Bill said.

"Really? What exactly is your plan?" Harley asked bitterly. Her tone had made Bill roar with laughter, which really had only infuriated Harley all the more.

"Oh, Harley," Bill said in between laughs. "I can't tell you that yet,"

"Alright. Then answer this, why did you kids call me 'mom'?" It had really bothered Harley. The two boys had called her that all through dinner as well.

"Because you are their Momma now," Bill replied as he reached out and took Harley's hand in his big, meaty one. "We're a family," He added. Harley felt a stream of confused fear run through her.

It wasn't very late, but everyone was in their rooms now. No one had wanted to talk, or do anything so as soon as dinner was had, they all went their separate ways. Riley had tried to fall asleep, but she couldn't. She kept playing the image of Bill holding onto Harley while Miguel, Lucien and Rosa all pointed guns at her and the rest of the group. Riley got out of bed and went to the door diagonally across from hers. She lightly tapped on it.

"Come in," The low voice growled on the other side. Riley pushed open the door and took a step in. Daryl was sitting on the end of his bed without a shirt cleaning a a rifle. A big grisly dark purple bruise took over most of his rib cage, mere inches away from the thick bandage that hid the wound from where his arrow had impaled him. "Shouldn't you be in bed?" Daryl asked as he lifted the metal rod that had a plain white piece of cloth attached out of the barrel of the gun.

"You love my sister, right?" Riley asked as she let the door shut behind her and took another step towards Daryl. His face turned red.

"Er…Well….Love is kinda a strong word,"

"I can tell you do. When Rick told you we were going tomorrow, the way you freaked out. The way you look at her. I know you love Harley," Riley said and waited a second to see if Daryl would speak. He didn't, he merely continued to look down at the gun in his lap. "Well, I love Harley to. Obviously not like you. Ew, that'd be gross. Anyway, I love her. He could be hurting her or doing any number of things to her. We need to go look for her now,"

"We? You ain't goin'," Daryl replied as he inserted the metal rod and cloth into the other barrel of the gun and started to move it up and down to clean it out.

"She's my sister, fucked if I ain't going," Riley said. Much to her dismay, Daryl started to chuckle a little.

"You sure as hell as Harley's little sister, ain't yah?" He laughed and finally turned and looked at riley. "If we go, and I find that cabin, yer waitin' outside,"

"Deal," Riley agreed, though she had no intention of actually doing that.


	16. Bill's lament

**Wow, this story is finally wrapping up. This was my first story on here, so it's really, really weird. Don't worry, there are still a few more chapters to come, but still...**

**Please review! :)**

"A family?" Harley spat as she jerked her hand away from Bill's. "You fucking took me away from the people I love. You will never, never be my family," She hissed as she jumped to her feet and glared down at him. Bill wasn't shocked by her reaction, and merely started to laugh which infuriated her all the more.

"I knew you'd say that," Bill said in a smile as he laced his fingers over his round belly. "And you know what I also know? I know that someday not too far away you're gonna see I'm right,"

"Go to hell," Harley said frigidly. She almost took a step towards the front door before realizing there was no point. She had no where to go. Being trapped like this was possibly one of the worst feelings she'd ever experienced, she figured. What made it worse to Harley was the fact that somewhere not even that far away a handful of people were probably worried about her. Worst of all, she was sure Riley was crying. Harley knew Riley very well and she was sure she was scared without her by her side. Harley was also sure that Riley was probably blaming herself for everything because of what had happened with Miguel, though the two had no connection to one another.

And then, there was Daryl Dixon. Hurt and rendered helpless. Harley shuddered as she remembered him lying down on the floor on his stomach as a little stream of blood flowed from his nostril and down over his lips when Bill hit him. It was hard to believe when she thought back that she had once hated him, that she had made so many judgments on him because of Merle. Despite the rocky start to their relationship, Harley could honestly say that while Riley gave her a reason to keep going in the tedious task of surviving that they all now knew to be everyday life, Daryl was the one who had made not killing herself worth it. Daryl was almost always the only one who could put a genuine smile on her face. Though neither Harley or Daryl were ones for talking, she understood him and felt he got her as well.

God, how she wished he was there. She wished he hadn't fallen down that cliff, so that none of this would have happened. Gun or no, Daryl Dixon wouldn't have let Harley walk out of the dorm the way she had. Daryl would have gone down swinging, the way Merle had told him every man ought to. "Merle always said only pussies give up," Daryl had told Harley one night when they had actually had a real conversation together that wasn't about survival or walkers.

"Looks like we're already there, sweets," Bill said in a wink as he also got to his feet. He had to grip the arm rests of the white plastic chair in order to get his balance to stand. "But, if you think I'm going down to those fiery pits of hell, you best believe I'm taking you down with me," He added in a low whisper as he placed his big hands on either side of Harley and held onto the railing behind her, trapping her.

"You aren't taking me anywhere," Harley said through gritted teeth as she looked up and meet his brown eyes.

"You're something else when you're mad," Bill chuckled as he tightened his grip on the railing. "I always did like a spitfire. Makes it all the more satisfying when I break their spirits,"

"Just going to warn you, Bill," Harley said, her voice low and dangerous. "I have a spirit you can't break. Want to know why?"

"Why's that?" Bill asked as he tilted his head to the side. He was legitimately curious as to what her reason would be.

"I don't know what women you've 'broken' before, but you can take me away from my group, my sister, Daryl. You've taken everything I have, but I'm a hell of a lot smarter than you. I'll admit, I'm at your mercy here at this cabin. You're weak. You're ten year old son in there probably has more balls than you. I'll figure something out and you'll be sorry you fucked with me," Harley replied. Normally if a woman had spoken to Bill that way, he would have laughed. This time though, he didn't. Harley had spoken calmly and confidently which accompanied by the rage directed at him in her green eyes, he actually felt a small jolt of something he might identify as fear.

Once the shock of Harley's words wore off Bill couldn't help but feel embarrassed a woman had bothered him, and to cover up he started laughing. "Alright, alright. Whatever you say, darlin'. To tell you the truth, I ain't too worried about a little thing like you trying to 'fuck me over'. You may be smarter, hell I ain't calling myself smart here. But I got the physical strength, and tomorrow you're gonna feel it," He said in a wink that made Harley's stomach turn. "Now here, why don't you sit down? You ain't going anywhere tonight. I'm gonna go in and make myself a drink, and I'm bringing one out for you too, you hear?" He said and got up and headed into the cabin to mix himself and her a drink.

The last thing Harley wanted was to drink with Bill. A voice in her head told her to try and get on his good side though. Harley used to watch those cheesy cop dramas a lot when she was tired after work; every episode was basically the same and if she didn't pay a whole lot of attention she didn't feel like she was missing anything. On a lot of those shows though, the victim who survived was the one who pretended to be nice and get along with their captor so that the villain trusted them. Harley hated the idea of faking being anything kind to Bill, she viewed herself complying with him as giving in. At the same thing though, Harley didn't plan on Riley growing up without her, and she sure as hell didn't plan on letting Daryl be single again that quick.

"Do you want me to carry anything?" Riley asked as she jumped up from the bed as Daryl tossed another bolt for his crossbow in their black holder, wincing as sears of pain tore through him from the sudden motion. He had spent a good half hour cleaning out his rifle and arrows. Everything had to be in top shape when if they made it to the cabin. Daryl knew there was no room for error, not when he was as hurt as he was and no one was backing him up besides Riley.

Daryl sighed and looked from the crossbow that was resting on his lap to the rifle that was leaning against the bed post. Daryl didn't really want to give either to Riley. He didn't dislike the kid, but he also knew she was a huge klutz. Choosing which weapon was less dangerous for her to carry was tough. The gun obviously could cause more injuries if it went off, plus if it did go off it was loud and could alert walkers to them if they were outside, or Bill and his men. The crossbow though, was much more likely to go off since the string had already been pulled back, since he had wanted to be prepared if a walker showed up when they were on the road.

"Take this," Daryl said after a thirty second long internal deliberation. He handed Riley the crossbow gingerly before getting to his feet and picking up the rifle. "Let's go," He said and slowly limped to the door with Riley behind him. The two made sure to be especially careful as they made their way through the dorm. Who knew if someone was awake and would hear them leaving. Once outside Daryl went straight to Merle's motorcycle and got on. Riley stood a few feet to the side looking at it wearily. 

"What?" Daryl demanded. 

"I-I've never ridden a motorcycle before," Riley stammered. She had been under the impression they were going to take the RV, which when looking back didn't make a whole lot of sense. Daryl didn't have the keys for it, and he sure as hell wouldn't have been able to get them from someone else.

"So?" 

"I'm scared!" Riley exclaimed as her face turned a bright crimson color. It was true though, the loud noise of the bike was horrid enough to her. She pictured herself sitting on the back of the bike, and falling off when they were going at a high speed. Or what would happen if a group of walkers showed up? There was no protection on a motorcycle and Riley knew that if they ran into walkers they'd be done for.

"Oh my God, kid," Daryl groaned as he turned the key, making the bike roar to life. "If you're so damn scared now then you sure as hell shouldn't be coming with me when I go get your damn sister. That's what's gonna be real scary," 

"I'll be fine," Riley said, though she was very unsure if she was telling a lie or not. To try and illustrate that she was fine, Riley took a step toward the bike though she still didn't get on the back. Daryl rolled his eyes.

"Look, either get on 'r stay. Don't matter tah me," Daryl said. Riley swallowed hard and got on the back of the bike and, awkwardly, wrapped her arms around Daryl's waist as he pulled out of the dorm's parking lot. As the motorcycle picked up speed down the street, Riley held on tighter to Daryl. As much as she wanted to ignore it, she couldn't help but notice his muscles through his flannel shirt and felt a tinge of jealousy for her sister.

Harley leaned back in her chair and watched as Bill finished his fourth drink. Harley hadn't touched hers. As much as she wanted a drink, she knew that alcohol would only ruin any chance she had at talking to Bill, and possibly getting him to feel remorseful for taking her. When his back was turned, now and then, she would spill some of her drink over the edge of the railing to make it look like she would be drinking so that he wouldn't get suspicious. Bill had had his hand smothering hers for some time now, and as much as Harley wanted to tear her hand back and claim it for her own once more, she refrained.

"Bill," Harley cooed in a voice so sickeningly sweet and seductive that it almost made her gag. "Can you tell me that plan you mentioned earlier? I'm really curious to hear it," Bill took one last swallow of his drink, grimacing as some alcohol that hadn't mixed with the soda hit his taste buds. 

"Aw sweetheart, I shouldn't," He grumbled. His voice was low and hard to understand now from his stiff drinks.

"Please," Harley asked and gave his hand a little reassuring squeeze. Bill sighed and with his free hand held onto the bridge of his nose.

"Alright, but understand it's for your benefit,"

"Of course," Harley said in a smile. Bill released her hand and got up to his feet and walked over to the railing and looked down at the valley below, the hills, the trees and the lake. Bill scanned the scene for a few seconds while attempting to ignore how heavy his eyelids had begun to feel, trying to think of the right words to say to explain to Harley why he had done what he had.

"All my life, my daddy brought me up telling me how important it is to have a family. My dad wasn't much of a father, neither. To him it was more about having a pretty woman to fuck all night to take your name and make you dinner and then spit out some kids to keep the line going. Y'know, I never did get that life dream to come true. I have Rex and Tommy in there, but their Momma left almost as soon as Tommy was born. 'Never dated again. Then the world went to shit, and I realized how much I wanted the life dream my daddy set forward. Harley, I'm gonna make an honest woman out of you. I know you ain't to partial to the idea right now, but you're gonna have a safe, full life here with me and my kin. We'll have a family of our own, an-"

"I can't listen to this shit anymore," Harley said finally. She had gotten what she wanted: to know his big 'plan'. Harley had known despite what she had hoped that Bill wouldn't let her go, whether she was really nice to him or not. So fuck it, she figured, if I'm stuck here I might as well make him as miserable as I am. "I'm not ever going to like your fucking idea. You tore me away from my sister and the man I lov-" She started to say and nearly gasped when she heard that 'L' word started to slip from her mouth.

"You love that hick?" Bill asked in a snort. Bill's face had started to turn a deep red and his grip on the railing had grown tight. Harley could tell by the waver in his voice that he was angry, and she didn't care. If anything, it gave her a rush of satisfaction. Harley thought for a second about his question, she knew she was going to say 'yes' either way, just to piss him off. But really, did she love Daryl? She hadn't spent enough time apart from him over the past couple months to contemplate it. As she thought about it though she remembered Daryl's Southern accent and smartass remarks. She remembered the way he kissed her, and the way he made her feel, and the way they bickered like nothing else only to end it all in laughter. Yeah, maybe she did.

"Yeah, I do," Harley said. 

"Well, that's too bad darlin'. You don't think so now, but you will. You'll see, things here will work out and you won't remember why you wanted him," Bill said through gritted teeth.


	17. The new and the old

**Author's note: I know I've said it before, but I am so incredibly sorry I haven't updated in so long. I had to move back to my parent's place for a month, and then I spent a while hanging out and catching up with them, then I worked (a lot) and then I had to be hospitalized for my heart(in the off chance you were, don't worry. I'm okay, just taking it easy for awhile.) Anyway, to make up for it, I worked pretty hard on this chapter, so I hope it meets your expectations.**

**I've gotten a lot of alerts and all that jazz from people. So thanks a bundle! I love getting anything like that!_ But if you haven't already, or if you would again, please review! They're what I live for!_**

It hadn't been too long after Harley had "run her goddamned mouth" that Bill had grabbed her tightly above the elbow and tossed her into the spare room Rick, Lori and Carl had shared some weeks ago when the group had stayed in the cabin. Harley sighed as she rested her palms on the cool window sill and gazed out. It was hard to believe as she looked out at the peaceful night that the end had come. That her parents had died. That millions of people were undead. Despite all the horrors that had happened, the moon and stars still shone down upon the world as if nothing had changed. What was even more unbelievable than that was the life she had used to live. She used to wear high heels daily; she used to wear mascara and lipstick. She used to shower daily. She used to go clothes shopping online as much as she could. It all seemed like some kind of fantasy. The Harley Scott that used to walk the newspaper office with confidence, that used to turn heads was dead. The little headshot of her that appeared at the bottom of her column in the paper was gone.

All that was left of that Harley was the new Harley that stood rigidly in front of the window planning her escape. Sure, the feminine, career woman Harley and the new Harley shared the same features: identical, cat-like eyes that were an indigo blue on the outside, and a lime green around the pupils. The same thin nose, the same well-formed, rosy lips and the same bone structure. All that they shared was a shell. Even that had some differences though. Old Harley was polished; she dressed to the nines, her make up was perfect and she took great care of herself: skin, nails, hair, everything. New Harley was rougher around the edges. Nail files, polish, hair conditioner, make up, skin moisturizer and wash were harder to come by in the post-apocalyptic world.

The new Harley Scott had seen nightmares. She'd shot walkers, things that had once been as human as she and had lives of their own. The new Harley had to watch out for Riley; it wasn't just about Harley anymore.

As Harley looked at the peaceful night she thought of Riley. More to the point, she thought of Riley if she didn't make it back. It wasn't that the people they lived with wouldn't be more than sufficient to provide and take care of her. Harley did get some ease in the fact that if something happened (she knew death itself would be the only reason she wouldn't make it back to that dorm.) Riley would be okay. Well, physically okay. Riley was only fifteen and had seen her grandparents get eaten like they were a lasagna dinner by her parents, and then watched her parents get shot in the head by her sister. Harley knew Riley needed her.

Bill was stupid and had came right back to the cabin, as if the rest of the group wouldn't try to come for her. How Bill really thought he, Lucien, Miguel and Rosa would be able to scare her whole camp from coming to look for her as soon as the next day, she had no idea. If anything, that idea was a bit cocky to Harley. Even if the rest of the group (primarily Shane) didn't come to look for her out of fear for risking their own necks on a rescue mission that could turn up fruitless, she knew damn sure Rick, T-Dog, Andrea, and most of all Daryl would be there looking for her.

But what if they waited until morning? She couldn't blame them. The twisty back roads that Bill's cabin hid behind would be tricky at night, and a damn hard to find from memory in the dark. It could be too late by morning. As Bill had dragged Harley up the stairs while Lucien, Miguel and Rosa stood at the bottom of the steps snickering like school kids, he had mumbled threats. Nothing big, until he had shoved her into the bedroom. In her rage, Harley had spat on him. Never in her wildest dreams had Harley thought she'd have such good aim; her saliva had hit Bill right in the center of his face. Some of it had gotten in his left eye and slid down his cheek, even running over his parted lips.

"You stupid fucking bitch!" Bill had shouted and ran into the room. Harley's stomach had clenched in fear, and despite her better instincts of trying to run from him she had stood her ground. She didn't budge from the door frame. Bill pushed her by her shoulders hard into the wall beside the door, so hard that the breath got knocked from her and she could swear her ribs rattled. Her head had hit a big, heavy frame that had held a mediocre painting of a farm scene. "I told you I liked my women a bit feisty. But you ain't feisty, you're a bitch," He yelled, but then his voice dropped to a low, raspy whisper that disturbed Harley more than any of his shouting had. "I don't need to put up with your shit. I won't put up with any stupid broad's shit. You best enjoy a good night's sleep tonight, babe. It's the last you'll get," He growled as he let go of her shoulders. His big face had turned a reddish purple, and her spit was still shining over the side of his face.

There was no way out right now. The door was locked, and she was no where near strong enough to break it down herself, and her room was up too high to open the window and make a jump. Bill had made one smart move, unfortunately, in not telling Harley what he planned to do the next day. Because of that, Harley couldn't make any plans of escape.

Harley sighed as she turned from the window and walked over to the double bed that was comfortingly placed in the center of the room. She laid down and rested her head on the feather pillow. She knew she'd have to play it by ear, and probably play dirty in order to get out of the cabin and get back to Riley, Daryl and the others. Harley knew damn well she'd more than likely have to do some things that made the old Harley squirm, if that Harley would have even imagined them. The new Harley however, was nearly excited to exact her revenge as she looked up at the ceiling, hoping for sleep to take her.

"Are we almost there?" Riley shouted in Daryl's ear over the sound of the wind whistling through her ears. Riley had of course, knew the wind would nip the exposed flesh of her arms, but she hadn't thought it would make her eyes burn and be so loud to her. Past the wind,

"I don't know," Daryl said in a regular voice, which against the howling wind that was whipping through Riley's hair, body and ears she had to strain to hear. Riley fought the urge to try and get information out of him, which she normally would have done if it were anyone besides Daryl. Maybe it was because she had had to spend so much time around him since Harley had started to begin seeing him, but she knew that 'I don't know', was Daryl's way of saying 'I'm lost'. Though they hadn't seen a single walker since they had left the dorm, which was bizarre seeing how loud the motorcycle was, Riley couldn't help but start to become nervous. Seconds ago she was completely at ease with the world. It was easy to forget how injured Daryl was since he never let on once, but being lost in the dark on a vehicle that didn't offer any protection was something that couldn't be forgotten…

"Rick!" Andrea screamed as she ran down the narrow hallway toward the room the Grimes' shared. As she rushed to their door at the end of the hall, a few different doors opened and looked out curiously such as Carol and T-Dog. Andrea completely ignored them and instead began pounding on the Grimes' door, which was the farthest away from everyone else's. Even when Andrea could hear footsteps on the other side of the door padding towards her, she kept knocking loudly and calling out.

"What is it, Andrea?" Rick asked tiredly though still concerned. It was only 6 a.m. and though Rick generally got up early to check on everything, he wasn't used to getting up this early, especially not since the group had moved to the fourth floor of the dorm where everything was immensely more safe. He had set his watch to go off in fifteen minutes to head out to go look for Harley with the rest of the group, and while fifteen minutes doesn't sound like a big time difference, that early it really felt like hours.

"Riley and Daryl both are gone. I went to go check in on Riley, since y'know, she was so upset last night. She was gone. Then I had a hunch and went to check on Daryl and he was gone too. They're not in the bathroom either, and Merle's motorcycle is gone from the parking lot," Andrea said quickly, so fast that Rick had a hard time processing her words. By this time, Carol, T-Dog and everyone else had left their rooms to see what the raucous was about.

"God damn it," Rick sighed as he ran his left hand over his face and through his short, wavy brown hair. "Alright," He began to say after a moment to blink the sleep from his eyes and to collect his thoughts. "Anyone who's coming with us to the cabin, get ready and meet me down in the lobby in five," Rick said and promptly turned on his heel, letting his room's door slam shut behind him.

"Rise and shine, princess," Bill howled as he barged in the room he had locked Harley into the night before. Harley was surprised to realize she must have been in a pretty deep sleep as she felt that she hadn't so much as had a wink of sleep the night before. Even though the sun was only just rising, Bill already had a fresh can of Budweiser in his hand and judging by how bloodshot his eyes were Harley was pretty sure it wasn't his first of the morning. "I spent a whole lot of time thinking what I wanted to do with you, darlin'," Bill smiled as he sat down on the edge of the bed beside Harley, who tried to jerk away from him as he reached a hand out and stroked her smooth reddish brown hair. "Do you want to stay here and be my girl?" He asked in a sickly sweet voice that made Harley feel nauseous. Harley propped herself up on her elbows and met Bill's brown eyes with her blue-green.

"No fucking way," Harley replied so calmly that it almost surprised even her. A quick image of the old Harley flashed through her mind. Old Harley was in the same position as her, dressed much nicer with make up neatly applied to her features, looking as lovely as any femme fatale. Instead of taking Bill on as New Harley had, Old Harley would have agreed to him. She would have begged for forgiveness, anything to spare her life for the time being. Harley knew she was being reckless with not agreeing, and though putting herself in danger this way Harley looked at it as she needed to save herself. Though she figured Rick, Daryl and the group would come to save her sooner rather than later she couldn't depend on them.

She had seem swarms of walkers. Big groups of them, groups so big that her little family wouldn't stand a chance against them. She'd seen posse's of walkers that big right on the road that led to Bill's cabin when they had been looking for Sophia, when she had though she had lost Riley and everyone had had to hide underneath cars to survive. Even though her new, little family being in danger like that made her skin crawl, she also figured that if the men (it was always the men going out and doing things, as sexist as she felt it was at times) came to find her, they would leave Riley behind. Daryl was injured, as well and that meant that he probably would be left behind as well as much as he didn't like it. As awful as it felt, Harley knew she had to find a way out on her own incase the group couldn't pull through for her. This one was on her.

Bill let out a snort and got to his face. His eyebrows were furrowed and his lips were turned down in a deep, angry frown before changing into an evil smirk.

"Alright, sweetheart. Well, how's about we go for a walk first, sweetheart?" He asked, but before Harley could say no he grabbed a hold of her wrist and pulled her off the bed and onto her feet before dragging her down the stairs.

"Need help, boss?" Lucien asked from the dining room table where he, Miguel, Rosa, Rex and Tommy were all eating breakfast.

"Nope, I want to do this one on my own, fellas. Rosa, why don't you go pretty yerself up? Without this bitch around to distract me, I'm sure you'll look damn fine," Bill said in a wink as he walked through the dining room without missing a step. Once outside Bill opened his teal trucks door open and let Harley get in on her own, once she had slid into the passengers seat he got behind the wheel and immediately started the engine and began speeding down the dirt road away from his cabin. Harley didn't short drive, but instead let her mind flood with a million different scenarios in which Bill could have in store for her.

Finally, not too far from the cabin, Bill let the truck come to an abrupt halt. They were in the middle of nowhere. All that surrounded them were trees; along with two walkers standing underneath a tree a couple of yards away from where Harley sat in the truck. Harley stiffened; walkers. Out of all of the ways she pictured Bill attempting to kill her, this wasn't the way. Harley's eyes widened as she looked at the two figures that she could hardly make out in the fog that had rolled in that morning. One walkers silhouette appeared to be a big, burly man and the other a small girl. Harley had envision things such as a drowning, strangling, shooting, hanging, anything. But, Bill leaving her as walking food was not one of the things she had thought of. Despite herself, Harley was almost impressed with him. Leaving her as walker food was something so dark, so out of the blue, and so terrifying it actually left her in goose bumps.

"Come on, sweetheart. How about a goodbye feast," Bill said as he howled in laughter at his own lame joke. Harley shook her head, both in the absolutely pathetic his joke was and to snap herself out of the fear that gripped onto her tightly. Sure, Harley had been scared ever since Bill and his boys had stormed into the dorm with their cut of shotguns, but this was a different fear. Harley had seen, upclose and personal, the way walkers tore apart a human.

She saw her parents…No, the walkers, they weren't her parents then… Leaned over her grandparents. Her mother's beige cardigan was covered in her own grandfather, her mothers father's, blood. Harley had been able to see his intestines displayed from his belly like the garbage can from a meat factory. Harley had watched in paralysis as her parents, the people who had loved and raised her, hungrily ate their flesh and viscera.

Harley realized, that was soon to be her as well. Harley took a deep breathe: in through her nose and out through her mouth, like those yoga videos always said to do to calm yourself before she got out of the truck where Bill immediately grabbed onto her so she couldn't run and slowly, shakily followed Bill's footsteps towards them.

"Maybe as they eat you like a bowl 'o icecream, you'll think twice about being such a disrespectful little bitch. I really didn't want nothing for you but the best," Bill said over his shoulder as he walked past trees. The thick fog made even him appear ghostly. Everything was haunting and wrong. When they got close to the figures, less than six feet away, Bill let go of Harley and shoved her towards the walkers that had shuffling towards them eagerly. When Harley looked up, she recognized the small walker as Carol's missing daughter, Sophia. Despite the way seeing Sophia like this shook her to the bone, she also thought of a last ditch effort to get out of this place.

"Hey Bill," Harley called out, her voice noticeably shaking as she got up from her knees to her feet and took a few paces away from the walkers that had been slowed down from their lack of nourishment.


	18. Kill or be killed

**Author's note: Only one more chapter of this story left. So bittersweet. Hope you likey. Please review, tell me what you like or don't like! :D**

Harley's knees shook violently beneath her as she stood a few feet away from Bill. It really was a wonder to her that she hadn't collapsed into a pitiful pile onto the forest floor. The walkers now had caught both of their scents as well as heard them and were beginning to stagger towards them. Low moans escaped their mouths and their hands reached out greedily towards them, reminding Harley of her parents. This wasn't good. She had to act fast, but adrenaline had kicked in and refused to let her mind put together a plan. Harley was always quick witted, and to have her own mind working against her now added frustration to her already mountainous stack of emotions,

"What is it you want now, you little slut?" Bill asked in a condescending laugh. He knew he had her trapped. He relished the fact the bitch who had such little respect for her she had spit on him would die a slow painful death, and he would be able to watch it all from the safety of his truck. His only regret was he hadn't brought popcorn for the show. "Wanna be nice to me now, don't ya? All you women are just the same. You just want to take, take, take; you don't actually love or want someone until it benefits you," He said in a snort as he looped his thumbs through the belt loops of his beige work pants. Harley felt perspiration start to bead in her forehead and her heart hammered in her chest. She only had one chance to get away from Bill and the two walkers. Harley tried not to think about the high chance of failure; she also couldn't think about what would happen if she did make it back to the dorm and had to tell Carol her little girl was now a walker.

Bill turned on his heel and amidst cackling laughter and began to walk back to his beat up teal pickup truck that still had both doors swung open. Harley swallowed hard as she tried to process what she intended to do. It was like her body knew, but her mind couldn't wrap itself around whatever was about to happen.

"Bill," Harley called out again. Once more, Bill stopped and turned towards Harley and looked at her eagerly. How he hoped she would beg for her life. Miss High and Mighty wasn't so tough now. However, a plan had finally hit her hard, and Harley didn't waste a second in acting out on it. She ran forward and threw herself at Bill as hard as she could, which had surprised him so much that he had toppled back onto the green, velvety moss covered ground in a grunt with Harley clinging onto him so he didn't have a chance of getting back up.

Daryl stopped Merle's motorcycle and kicked the side peg down before standing up and walking around the side of the bike, leaving Riley perched on the back.

"What's wrong?" Riley asked. The two of them had been on the bike for so long that the world suddenly felt eerily silent without the sound of the bike roaring and grunting as they sped down the road. They had passed through the highway where Sophia had been lost, many side dirt roads, and were now back to the highway. Riley had been aware of the fact Daryl had been lost for awhile now. She hadn't dared to say anything though, Riley had had to live in close quarters with Daryl Dixon long enough to know he wouldn't take kindly to her criticisms, if he even acknowledged them at all. Even though she had been mildly concerned by Daryl basically driving them around on the motorcycle in circles, she also trusted him. Riley had seen the way Daryl had looked for Sophia tirelessly, protected her sister and always brought meat back for dinners for the entire camp. Daryl was a man's man and Riley knew that he wouldn't let anything happen to any one in the camp, and she wasn't any exception. If anything, Riley knew Daryl would work to keep her safe harder than almost anyone else in the camp. She was still a "kid" and also Harley's kin.

"God damn motorcycle's runnin' outta gas," Daryl mumbled as he placed his hands on his knees and leaned forward to ease the pain of his ribs, the wound in his side and his back. After awhile on the bike his pains had seemed to fade, but once he had begun to move again all the pains came back with a vengeance.

"What're we going to do?" Riley asked as she got off of the bike as well. Her frizzy red hair was wilder than usual because of the wind that had torn through her hair for hours. Even Daryl, who had short, straight hair was suffering a bit of a bad hair day too, tufts of hair on either side of his head stuck straight out, reminding Riley of feathers.

"I have just enough gas to get you back to the college, I figure. I'm going to drop you off and come back to get your sister," Daryl replied in a husky voice as he tilted his chin up just enough so he could meet Riley's eyes. He hated to do it, he knew Riley would be angry. But, Daryl didn't have the energy or tools to siphon gas from any of the vehicles that littered the highway around them, and he didn't have the heart to leave Merle's motorcycle behind to take another vehicle. All the vehicles on the highway around them all seemed tightly incased together, and getting a car freed from any of he lanes would be a challenge he didn't dare take on right now. If only he hadn't fallen down that damn cliff…

"T'hell you are! Harley is my sister. We're related by blood, all you and her have are near death experiences and the exchanging of body fluids-"

"Y'know, when you put it that way it sounds real disgustin'," Daryl said as he stood up straight again and took two painful paces back to the bike where he sat down again. He didn't turn the key in the ignition yet, just sat on the bike with his hands resting flat on his thighs. His torso burned and ached worse than anything he could remember feeling in his whole life. Riley holding onto him so tightly for so long hadn't helped ease the pain, either.

"Well, you said earlier you didn't love her or anything, so I figure that's all you and her have then," Riley shot back shrilly. Her voice had steadily gotten higher and higher along with her freckled face turning a deeper shade of pink constantly. Daryl couldn't look at her, instead of looking at her, he kept his eyes focused on the bright yellow line in the center of the road that had drops of blood splattered through it from a walker or human that had passed through a long time ago. The blood had tried now and was nearly black, but Daryl still knew what it was. As he looked at the splatter he couldn't help but be reminded of that lame-ass modern art bullshit he'd had to look at in a gallery in high school before he'd dropped out. Truth was, Daryl felt incredibly guilty having to take Riley back because he could imagine being in her shoes. If he had the chance to go save Merle and someone wouldn't let him go he would have been beyond pissed. At the same time, Daryl was much more scared of dealing with a pissed off Harley than Riley and Daryl knew how Harley would react when she found Daryl had decided to keep looking for her-with her little sister in tow, despite the fact their motorcycle could die out on them at any minute.

Daryl's lips tightened and his brows knitted together at Riley's statement, but he remained silent. It had only been a few hours ago that she had said the opposite, that she had claimed she knew he loved Harley regardless of if he verbalized it or not. A chill surged through Daryl as he wondered if Harley also thought she meant nothing more to him than a way to get his dick wet. What if she was dying right now at Bill's hands and thought he was just using her.

She couldn't though, Daryl assured himself. Daryl thought of the night when he had sat on top of the RV with Harley and stayed up there all night with her by his side, just looking at the stars, swapping stories from before the world went to hell. It was a simple memory, but if Harley had felt the way he had that night, there's no way she could forget it, and there was no way she could think he didn't care about her.

"Just get on the bike," Daryl said finally as he finally looked over at her, having to squint his eyes to do so since the sun was up now and blinded him otherwise.

"No way! You're just going to take me back and leave me to worry about Harley all day-"

"Listen!" Daryl nearly shouted. Daryl had never raised his voice to Riley; she'd heard him yell a lot of times, at T-Dog and Rick when they had first told him Merle had been left behind, for instance. But, he'd never yelled at her. For the most part, besides that one day in the lounge when Riley had stupidly tried to intimidate him about being with her sister, Daryl had been as sweet as sugar to her. His tone had made her blood run cold and did quiet her. "The longer you sit here whining to me the longer it's going to take for me to find Harley. And you know what that means, genius?"

"It could be too late…" Riley murmured quietly.

"Yup, good guess," Daryl grunted and turned away from and down to the bike. He turned the ignition key and dark gray exhaust started to pour out of the back of it. Riley didn't say another word or try to fight him. She obediently got on the back of the bike and wrapped her arms around Daryl's waist again as he kicked the peg back before making a U-turn to bring her back to the dorm.

"Get the fuck off me, you stupid cunt!" Bill roared as he reached up to grab Harley by the hips and throw her off. Before he could touch her, Harley reached her hand out and pushed down on his throat, making him lie flat on the ground again and taking his breathe away.

"I'll be damned if I let a stupid, sexist, disgusting pig like you kill me. I'm better than you; people like you are the reason I think humanity deserved this," Harley said in a low tone. Her heart was still beating hard and fast against her ribs, and the blood pumping through her veins felt electric, making her voice quiver as she spoke. Bill reached up and knocked her hand off of her throat. Bill was much stronger than her, and his hit had almost made her lose balance and fall off of him, but she had caught herself.

Bill reached his hands up to try and grab for her again, and before Harley even knew what she was doing her thumbs found their way into Bill's eye sockets. Bill screamed out in pain and his arms and legs flailed and squirmed beneath her. Harley had intended on choking him until he either was left there unconscious or dead, but there was no turning back now. Harley twisted her thumbs around, making Bill's screams amplify. He finally seemed to have a straight though in his brain, and with all of his might laid his hands flat against Harley's stomach and shoved her off of him. Harley fell on her back and propped herself up with her elbows and saw the product of her attack.

Bill had rolled over to his stomach and was trying to crawl away, but wasn't moving much anymore. Harley could only see his bluntly featured profile, but saw a clearly liquid mixed with blood running down his cheek from the empty hole that had once held his eyeball.

"You fucking whore… Stupid bitch… Oh my god… Oh god," Bill was wailing. Harley jumped to her feet and ran for the truck.

"You can't leave me here!" Bill shouted after her, desperation evident in his voice. "I got two sons. They'll be all alone without me," He pleaded. Harley stopped for a second. She hadn't thought of the sons. She had been sure Lucien, Miguel and Rosa wouldn't come after her because she was sure Bill had mistreated them while they had stayed with him, and not to mention without Bill they had the cabin to themselves. But what about his sons? Could she really leave those two kids as orphans? As a war of morals raged inside her she got into the truck, reaching over to close the passengers side door and the drivers side before starting the truck, putting it in drive and starting down the dirt road that after a five minute drive would connect to a main road. As guilty as she felt, she couldn't chance being taken from Riley, who needed her, again. She couldn't chance having to suffer a brutal death like she almost had had to face now. It was dog eat dog and Harley had won the fight.

"Please!" Bill shouted as Harley had started to drive. From the rear view mirror Harley could see Sophia and the other walker bending over the struggling form of Bill. Her stomach churned, but she kept on driving. It was over. It had only been a day long ordeal, but it had felt like an eternity. It was over. She was going to be okay. She was going to be able to hold Riley and kiss Daryl again. It was over. And she didn't plan on taking any of the people in her camp for granted again.

"Where the hell have you been?" Rick exclaimed as Daryl and Riley walked through the front doors of the dorm. Daryl, who had limped rather than walked in, leaned against the front desk and rested his rifle down on it.

"I was looking for Harley, what the fuck do you think?" Daryl said.

"No luck?" Dale asked from behind Rick. Everyone around them looked to Daryl and Riley eagerly.

"Well, I don't got her do I?" Daryl said in an eye roll as he ran a hand over his sweaty forehead.

"You didn't find her at all?" Rick asked.

"Are we speakin' the same language? I said no,"

"Alright then, let's go get her. I'm sure I can find it in the daylight," Dale said. Without another word everyone except for Lori, Carl and Carol left the dorm and piled into the Winnebago.

Tears had started to roll down Harley's cheeks by the time she had gotten to the main road. She had killed someone's father. The last family those kids had. She had almost died herself. She'd been damn close to being torn apart and made a meal. Sophia was a walker. All of the searching everyone had done had been in vain. So much was wrong. Harley knew she should feel relieved, but she didn't. She felt emotionally tired.

She drove down the main road for awhile when she saw another vehicle heading towards her. She was quick to wipe her tears away and slow the truck down. Whether whoever she was going to meet was friend or foe, she didn't know but tried to pull herself together. A few feet closer she realized it was a Winnebago._ The_ Winnebago. She slammed on the brakes and once the RV was by her side, the face of Dale looked down at her. Dale's jaw dropped and he looked completely shocked but then broke out into a big, face splitting grin.

"What the fuck are we stopping for, old man!" Harley heard Daryl yell from the back. A smile played at her lips at the sound of his voice and her heart began to start pounding again, but this time in a good way.

"Are you okay?" Dale asked, completely ignoring Daryl.

"A little shaken up," Harley admitted in a shrug. "But yeah, I'm okay,"

"Maybe you shouldn't be driving," Dale said in his caring, father like way. "It's pretty full here in the RV, but I think I know someone who wants to see you and can drive you back," Dale then got up from the drivers seat and disappeared to the back of the RV. Seconds later, Harley heard the RV's door squeak open and slam before Daryl appeared around the corner of it. His hands had been shaking and his vibrant blue eyes were wide, but when he saw her his expression eased.

"Oh my God," Harley said as she threw open the teal truck's door, jumped out and sprinted towards him. Daryl caught her in his arms and held her as tightly as he could.

"God damn it, Harl. Don't ever fucking scare me like that again, ever," Daryl whispered in her ear before pulling back just enough to be able to plant a kiss on her forehead.


	19. Rolling with the punches

**Author's note: Wow, this is the first story I've actually finished, in well, like forever. I hope this isn't a shitty end. I'm terrible at endings, I'll admit. But, I'm considering a sequel at some point. Until then, I'm going to be focusing on my Boondock Saint's story, so if you don't already read that you should check it out. As always, please review!**

Daryl was silent after Harley had told him what had happened at the cabin. Harley awkwardly looked down at her hands and shuddered; the goo and blood from Bill's eyes was still caked under her nails and dried around them. Seeing it made her feel filthy and brought her right back to the moment she was on top of him and she had plunged her thumbs into his eyes and felt the eyeball pop beneath the tips of her thumbs and the warm rush of fluids. Daryl was driving slow; keeping Bill's pick up truck at 15 miles per hours. The cars that lined up on the high way crawled past her vision. She had so much time as they passed that she was able to see every decaying face of someone who had starved to death, or were consumed in their cars or sprawled out on the asphalt.

"You sure it was Sophia?" Daryl asked finally. Harley sighed, she had been sure he'd take the news of the little girls death hard. Daryl had taken it upon himself to go out and look for her, harder than anyone in the camp. Much harder than even the girl's own mother.

"Yeah, it was her. I'm sorry, Daryl," Harley said quietly. She looked and studied Daryl; it was like a movie how he sat there, with his hand on the wheel. It was almost as if Harley wasn't there at all, he was so submerged in his thoughts.

"You okay?" Daryl asked for what felt like the hundredth time since they'd been reunited.

"Yeah, Daryl. I'm fine," Harley assured him. Then, her voice got a bit more quiet and she turned her gaze from Daryl and back out the window where she was met with the scene of a red Subaru. In it's driver's seat the face of a middle aged woman sat. The woman's face was pressed against the closed window, her glasses were shattered and even from the distance Harley could see the decay on her face, the skin rotting away and the slight movement of maggots wiggling in her cheek. "I just feel kind of guilty about those boys,"

"Harl," Daryl said sternly, finally turning his head to look at her. Daryl had been quiet for so long after learning about Sophia's death that Harley had been legitimately worried about him. How backwards was that? After everything that Harley had had to hear, see and do over the past 24 hours, Daryl was the one getting sympathy. "You did what you had to do. Shitty things happen. We're living in a shitty world. You can't control it, and neither can I. We just gotta roll with the punches, ya hear?"

"I guess you're right," Harley sighed, still looking out the window. All the cars, empty or filled with blood and corpses, seemed to run together now. Harley just wanted to get back to the dorm and lay down on her bed and just have a solid, peaceful few minutes to collect herself.

"O' course I'm right," Daryl exclaimed. "Haven't you learned nothing since I met you?" Daryl laughed as he reached out and snaked his hand into Harley's. He laced his fingers between hers and squeezed gently. It seemed painfully ironic to laugh. He has wasted almost two weeks looking for a little girl who was a walker. Merle was still missing. Harley had had to kill someone, and he hadn't been able to save her. But somehow, because of all of that, laughing felt like the most appropriate thing to do. Harley hadn't said much since he'd gotten into the truck with her. Sure, she'd smiled and kissed him passionately, but Daryl Dixon was a lot of things, but stupid wasn't one of them. He could feel the weight in her soul, and he didn't like it. So, laughing made the most sense. Daryl remembered hearing somewhere laughter was the best medicine, or something cheesy like that. Even though he thought it was cheesy, he still felt that it may just be true advice.

Harley broke out into a smile and chuckled a little bit to herself. "Yeah sorry, I guess I forgot." She said in a laugh as she hitched over across the trucks bench-seat, so she was closer to Daryl.

"You still got Riley, an' me, we're fine," Daryl said. "Ain't no way once I'm all healed up that anything is gonna touch you again… 'Cept me," He winked.

"Daryl, I'm traumatized, now isn't the time," Harley joked. Daryl could have sighed in relief, he knew that Harley wasn't by any means magically over what had happened at the cabin. Hell, it had been a long time ago since Daryl had been at the cabin when Bill lured him into the woods and hit him upside the head with a rock, and Daryl wasn't even over that himself. Daryl knew it would be a long time, if ever, Bill was out of Harley's head. Daryl was happy that she was joking though. He had never seen Harley have such a grave look on her face, and he didn't like it. Not one bit. Daryl knew expressions and feelings like those that Harley had and was still feeling were inevitable in a world like this. Everyone was either dead and out to eat you or they were alive, and that was usually way worse.

"Thank you, Daryl," Harley said as she rested her head on his shoulder. Daryl removed his hand from hers and instead draped his arm around her shoulders. He could feel her smooth hair against his neck and smiled to himself. For the first time since he could remember, he did believe his own advice: Things were going to be okay, one way or another, they'd just have to roll with the punches.

As soon as Harley stepped out of the pick up truck, Riley had run full speed to her and hugged her sister as tightly as possible.

"You're okay! You're okay!" Riley squealed as she pulled back, jumping up and down, and looked at Harley's face. Harley couldn't help but laugh, even though it felt so wrong.

"Of course I'm okay," Harley said in a smile as she tucked a wild lock of red hair behind Riley's ear. "You can't get rid of me that easily," She added in a wink before heading over to where everyone else in camp had congregated. Everyone hugged her, and said their own little words of comfort.

As if it were scripted, Carol was the last in line to reach out and pull Harley to her. "I'm glad you're alright. It would have been awful empty here without you," Carol said in Harley's ear. Harley swallowed hard. Today had been a hard day. It was right up there with when she had to take the shot gun out and shoot her own family. She wanted to thank Carol, and then just go upstairs to sleep. She was so tired, so very tired: mentally, physically and emotionally; but she knew she couldn't.

"Carol, I'm sorry," Harley said in a sigh as she pulled away from Carol just enough to meet her dark blue eyes, but still held her. As if everyone in the group all of a sudden has supersonic hearing, they all turned to Carol and Harley and went completely silent as to hear what Harley had to say. Daryl was the only one who tried to ignore what was about to happen. He leaned against the teal truck that had been warmed up from the sun, so much so that it made his back perspire a little bit through his black shirt. Harley looked around herself at the face of Glenn, Lori, Andrea and Rick. They were all looking at her, staring her down, anxiously awaiting what she was about to say. Harley took a deep breath and turned back to Carol who already had tears brimming in her eyes.

"Sophia… Sophia's gone,"

"Well, I knew Sophia's gone!" Carol said amid a panicked fake laugh that made goose bumps start to form on Harley's arms and back. From the back of the group who watched, Daryl grimaced. "That's not new news, Harley," Carol managed to squeak out.

"Not like that," Harley said slowly. She couldn't look at Carol anymore, instead her eyes were turned down to her dark brown boots. "S-she's dead,"

The word 'dead' hit Carol harder than she had imagined. Carol had thought hundreds of times Sophia could, and probably was dead out there. There was just something about hearing it out loud, having it made definite that changed everything. Carol's knees buckled and she fell down to the ground beside the RV and took Harley down with her, who had still been holding Carol.

Everyone in the camp watched on for a few seconds in total awe. No one knew what to do. Hell, maybe there was nothing to do anyone. No one was really sure. Everyone exchanged dumbfound glances around Carol and Harley.

"Carol, I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry," Harley whispered frantically as Carol wailed in her arms.

"Come on Carol, let's go in and I'll get you some tea or something," Lori interjected. She knelt down on the ground beside Harley and Carol and offered Carol her hand. Carol looked at Lori's hand, tears still streaming down her cheeks like a river, and nodded.

Once Lori and Carol disappeared in the dorm the rest of the group finally seemed to change from statues back to their normal selves. Everyone stood near Harley, who was still on her knees on the pavement.

"Hey, Harley," Shane said as he walked around and stood in front of her and knelt down a bit to meet her eyes easier. "Wanna tell us what exactly happened at that cabin? Is he and his posse gonna be comin' back for us? That'd be something good to know," He asked, his tone continued to rise until it was almost a complete shout by the end.

"Back the fuck off of her," Daryl spat as he finally got up from leaning against the truck and began to stride towards Shane. "She took care of it,"

"Listen you white trash piece of shit, I asked her a question, not you,"

"Guys," Rick said just loud enough to catch Daryl and Shane's attention. "Not now," Rick didn't say anything else, but looked at Harley. His expression was understanding, and was just what Harley needed to have the energy to tell the story again.

"You're really worried about those two boys, huh?" Rick asked as Harley finally got back up to her feet. The Georgia sun was beating down on them unnaturally hot for a late autumn day.

"Well, yeah. Lucien, Rosa and Miguel are all taken care of. They're only like 16 and 10. If those three decide not to help them, they're kind of fucked," Harley said in a shrug as Daryl came up from behind her and put a comforting, calloused hand on her shoulder.

"You know, I remember those two boys were pretty good hunters. What do you say Dale and I go get them and bring them back?" Rick said, which delighted Harley.

"That'd be perfect," Harley grinned. Though she couldn't say she wouldn't think of them calling her 'Mom', she also thought of how monotone they had been. Every time Bill had been anywhere near the boys they always looked terrified. Assuming it worked out the way Harley hoped and not one of the ways she dreaded, something might finally work out.

Even though Shane had objected to bringing more people in camp, Rick and Dale left to go to the cabin almost immediately, with guns in tow just in case anyone was hostile. Harley took that time to go up to her room, followed by Daryl, to lay down and finally rest.

Harley was glad he had come up with her, and not Riley. Daryl wasn't much of a talker, like Harley and he had simply laid on the bed with her until Rick and Dale came back. He understood how worried she was- Harley had killed the boys father, their only family besides each other, and didn't want to pry and make it worse. As he held Harley close he could feel how tense her body was.

About an hour later, Dale popped his head into Harley's room.

"God damn it, old man, can't you knock? What if something else had been happenin'?" Daryl snapped as he slowly moved his aching body into a sitting up position.

"Sorry Daryl," Dale said. "Harley, the boys are here. They came with us no problem. They're down stairs, getting ready to have dinner."

"How'd they take it all?" Harley asked as she got up from the bed and got to her feet.

"Fine. They're obviously a bit sad they lost their father, Harl. They didn't say a whole lot, but they seem more excited to be away from him," Dale said. "I'll see you two down stairs,"

"Looks like there was some kinda happy endin' after all, huh?" Daryl said as he wrapped an arm around Harley's waist and with the other hand brushed her hair from her neck and kissed the curve of her shoulder gently.

"Well, something had to give sometime," Harley smiled and turned to Daryl and met his lips with a gentle kiss.

"Don't wanna leave those kids hanging," Daryl said as he pulled away from Harley. "After dinner I'm givin' you the welcome home a' yer life," Daryl winked as he bent his head down and nipped Harley's neck before walking, or rather, limping towards the bedroom door.


	20. SEQUEL IS UP!

Hey guys! I know a lot of people are subscribed to this story, so I figured I'd make this post here in case you haven't already seen it. The sequel is ~finally~ up if anyone still cares. Go check it out though! :D


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